Grandparental retirement and intergenerational transfers: Evidence from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA)

Grandparental retirement and intergenerational transfers: Evidence from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Grandparental retirement and intergenerational transfers: Evidence from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) Likun Mao, Charles Normand This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6856141/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract A good understanding of intergenerational relationships and transfers has important implications for employment, human capital and social mobility. This paper investigates the impact of grandparental retirement on children’s outcomes in the short term using state pension eligibility to instrument grandparental retirement that can be endogenously affected by children’s outcomes. Results show little impact on children’s overall employment rate, but a statistically significant and negative impact on the full-time employment rate of children: a reduction by around 11.7 percentage points. In the meantime, downstream financial and time transfers, neither the likelihood of provision nor intensity, are largely affected. However, these impacts are not driven by contemporaneous decisions on marriage or fertility but likely by increased needs for family caring from mothers themselves in a subsequent period. Furthermore, the impact is heterogeneous by gender and socioeconomic heterogeneities. The negative employment effect is more pronounced in socioeconomically advantaged groups, suggesting heterogeneous and complex trade-offs between employment and family life by socioeconomic resources. JEL code: J14, J21, J26 Retirement Older workers Intergenerational transfers Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files intergenerationalandretiremenappendices.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6856141","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":473118533,"identity":"776adaee-318e-4da4-8e37-498b821f7701","order_by":0,"name":"Likun Mao","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA00lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACPmY2KIu9gY2BB8JkxquFDa6F5wCxWhhgWiQSiNXCzpYmXcCwTZ5f8vGzB293MMjzN/AYGxBw2DHpGQy3DWfOTjM3nHuGwXDGAR7jBPxa2NukeRhuM264nWAmzdvGwLiBgcf4ADFa7DfcPP4NpMWeCC1AhwG1JG64wQO2JRGkhYDD2JKteQxuJ8/sySk3nNsmkTzjMFsxXu/z8x8zvM1Tcdu2n/34tgdv22xs+9ubN0vg0wIBCFMlCMXKKBgFo2AUjAJiAAC30zkd6SwLsgAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"University of Aberdeen","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Likun","middleName":"","lastName":"Mao","suffix":""},{"id":473118535,"identity":"3cee2506-08ac-4437-b5c8-41967b17102a","order_by":1,"name":"Charles Normand","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Trinity College Dublin","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Charles","middleName":"","lastName":"Normand","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-06-09 16:10:57","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6856141/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6856141/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":92719541,"identity":"64bef7a7-2b7c-4014-8220-f7e32c0ce5f4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-03 13:16:57","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":566697,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"intergenerationalandretirementmaintext.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6856141/v1_covered_8b6b39f9-dd94-4d7f-bd97-42f200f5f47f.pdf"},{"id":85081642,"identity":"740a2798-69ac-409b-9744-8284c86a908f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-20 17:54:10","extension":"docx","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":628307,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"intergenerationalandretiremenappendices.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6856141/v1/6734e2914cb4b246af1a739d.docx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Grandparental retirement and intergenerational transfers: Evidence from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA)","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Retirement, Older workers, Intergenerational transfers","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6856141/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6856141/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eA good understanding of intergenerational relationships and transfers has important implications for employment, human capital and social mobility. This paper investigates the impact of grandparental retirement on children’s outcomes in the short term using state pension eligibility to instrument grandparental retirement that can be endogenously affected by children’s outcomes. Results show little impact on children’s overall employment rate, but a statistically significant and negative impact on the full-time employment rate of children: a reduction by around 11.7 percentage points. In the meantime, downstream financial and time transfers, neither the likelihood of provision nor intensity, are largely affected. However, these impacts are not driven by contemporaneous decisions on marriage or fertility but likely by increased needs for family caring from mothers themselves in a subsequent period. Furthermore, the impact is heterogeneous by gender and socioeconomic heterogeneities. The negative employment effect is more pronounced in socioeconomically advantaged groups, suggesting heterogeneous and complex trade-offs between employment and family life by socioeconomic resources.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJEL code:\u003c/strong\u003e J14, J21, J26\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Grandparental retirement and intergenerational transfers: Evidence from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA)","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-06-20 17:38:05","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6856141/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"4ed87435-9982-484c-900e-4f1e2f720ac8","owner":[],"postedDate":"June 20th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-10-03T13:08:46+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-06-20 17:38:05","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6856141","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6856141","identity":"rs-6856141","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}