ON THE LIVING ARRANGEMENTS OF ELDERLY WIDOWS

Carlos Bethencourt and José-Víctor Ríos-Rull ()

International Economic Review, 2009, vol. 50, issue 3, pages 773-801

Abstract: Between 1970 and 1990, the share of elderly widows living alone grew by 23.2% in the United States, whereas those living with their children decreased by a similar amount. We pose a variety of models for determining the living arrangements in which living together increases consumption because of economies of scale and may also provide utility directly. We estimate these models using the 1970 data and obtain an excellent fit. The estimated models predict that changes in the incomes of both the widow and her offspring generate three-quarters of the increase in the number of widows living alone. Copyright © (2009) by the Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

Date: 2009

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