The Effect of Grandchildren on the Happiness of Grandparents: Does the Grandparent's Child's Gender Matter?

Eiji Yamamura () and Giorgio Brunello

No 14081, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: Using a representative sample from Japan and a difference-in-differences strategy, we investigate whether the effect of having grandchildren on the happiness of grandparents varies with the gender of their (own) single child. In line with our expectations, we find that maternal grandmothers have more to lose or less to gain from having grandchildren than paternal grandmothers. In contrast, grandfathers' changes in happiness do not depend on their own child's gender. This result is explained by the fact that grandmothers are more likely to be involved in child-rearing when their daughter has a child.

Keywords: happiness; grandchildren; grandparents; gender differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 J13 J14 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2021-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published in: Asian Economic Journal, 2023, 37 (2), 149 - 163

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp14081.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Effect of grandchildren on the happiness of grandparents: Does the grandparent's child's gender matter? (2023)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14081

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mark Fallak ().