Who Cares for the Elderly? Intrafamily Resource Allocation and Migration in Mexico

Francisca M. Antman, Stanford University

This paper investigates the determinants of individual contributions from children to parents in terms of both physical and financial care and explores how the distribution of responsibility for the elderly parent across siblings affects international migration. I address these questions by estimating best response functions for individual time and financial contributions as well as migration as functions of total siblings' contributions of time and money to their elderly parents. I find that (1) individuals reduce their time and financial contributions in response to an increase in their siblings' contributions and (2) a decrease in siblings' total financial contribution and an increase in their total time contribution results in an increase in the probability that the individual will migrate to the U.S. These results suggest that siblings' contributions toward their parents are substitutes, and individuals who feel more financially and less physically responsible for their parents are more likely to migrate.