Motivations for support to retired parents in Israel

Purpose – Enabling decision-makers in Israel to better assess the prospects of government policies aimed at changing inter-generation income distribution for the benefit of the retirees. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a comprehensive data set, the paper utilizes multivariate ordered-probit regression for empirical investigation of the motivations for support between parents and children in Israel. Findings – The main finding is that child-parent support in Israel is usually driven by a combination of exchange and altruistic motives, rather than altruism alone. Practical implications – Child-parent support will not reduce the impact of governmental policies aimed at redistributing income among different generations. If the Government of Israel raises the income level of its citizens aged 65 and over, the improvement in this population's condition will most probably be bigger than that caused directly by the amount the government has added to their income. Originality/value – Empirical evaluation of the motivations for support given by children to their retired parents in Israel. Israel is a multicultural, immigrant country, home to people originating from all over the world, which provides an interesting cross-cultural perspective. In addition, the underlying database used in this study includes much more information than most databases utilized by earlier studies.