The Effects of Co-Residence with Adult Children on Bequest Preferences: Longitudinal Analyses of Gender-Specific Effects

Abstract

This study attempted to investigate the effects of co-residence with adult children on the bequest intentions of elderly Korean parents. Various theoretical perspectives are discussed and are empirically tested by utilizing the Survey of Living Conditions and Welfare Needs of Korean Older Persons (2008-2011). A pre-test and post-test design for analyzing longitudinal data was adopted in order to conduct a more rigorous study. After drawing three distinctive datasets by dimensions of bequest intention - charitable giving, son preference, and altruistic bequest - , multinominal, ordinal, and binary logit models were applied. The results revealed that co-residence of an elderly fathers with their daughters tended to enhance the probability of bequeathing wealth to children, rather than making charitable giving decisions. Elderly fathers who lived with their daughters were also more likely to prefer equal inheritance among children than those who did not. In contrast, elderly mothers living with sons were more likely to express son preference than those who were not. Lastly, the probability of elderly mothers preferring altruistic bequest was higher when they lived separately from their sons.