published as 'Reciprocity and the matrilineal advantage in European grand-parenting' in: Review of the Economics of the Household, 2023, 21, 397 - 433
This study documents the matrilineal advantage in grandparent – grandchildren relationships in Europe, using data on 20 European countries and Israel from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement (SHARE). We show that maternal grandparents look after grandchildren and provide financial or material gifts to children more than paternal grandparents do. In exchange, daughters help their parents with personal care, household tasks and paperwork more than sons do. The matrilineal advantage is stronger for grandmothers than for grandfathers, and stronger in the more conservative societies of Southern Europe, where gender inequality is higher and trust in others is lower.
We use cookies to provide you with an optimal website experience. This includes cookies that are necessary for the operation of the site as well as cookies that are only used for anonymous statistical purposes, for comfort settings or to display personalized content. You can decide for yourself which categories you want to allow. Please note that based on your settings, you may not be able to use all of the site's functions.
Cookie settings
These necessary cookies are required to activate the core functionality of the website. An opt-out from these technologies is not available.
In order to further improve our offer and our website, we collect anonymous data for statistics and analyses. With the help of these cookies we can, for example, determine the number of visitors and the effect of certain pages on our website and optimize our content.