Published in:

30-04-2022

# A Multidimensional Approach to Intergenerational Balance Measurement: A Cross-Sectional Study for European Countries

Authors: Filip Chybalski, Edyta Marcinkiewicz

Published in: Social Justice Research | Issue 2/2022

## Abstract

The demographic shift experienced by developed countries inevitably results in a change in intergenerational relations. However, despite some attempts to evaluate intergenerational balance in quantitative terms, there is still a significant literature gap in this respect. This paper aims to propose a conceptual and empirical framework to measure intergenerational balance in a cross-country perspective which can serve for the comparative assessment of the outcomes of various policies. It addresses the research question in which countries selected generations are privileged over others in socio-economic terms. Our empirical study includes the investigation of the (relative) situation of different generations as well as comparisons of gender differences in terms of studied welfare state performance across generations to examine whether gender equality in some generations is more promoted than in others. As a criterion, we employ multivariate statistical analysis methods to group 25 European countries into clusters using the intergenerational balance in terms of poverty, income, housing, labour market, education and health. We distinguish four patterns in this respect: ‘Supporting young’, ‘Supporting adult’, ‘Discriminating against elderly’ and ‘Supporting elderly’. Our findings reveal that shifting the perspective from inputs to outcomes and including gender perspective gives a somewhat different picture of Europe in terms of intergenerational balance.

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Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Footnotes
1
The use of data from 2012, i.e. five years earlier than the base period, refers to GD_Unempyoung (due to data gaps) and GD_Unempadult (to ensure intra-country comparability in terms of the period with GD_Unempyoung), so it applies only to 2 out of 56 indicators used in the empirical analysis. This suggests a minimal impact on the final results of the study. Nevertheless, as additional analysis, we approximated the unemployment rate for males and females aged 15–19 using similar data for age groups 15–24 and 20–24 and formula: $${Unemp}_{15-24}={Unemp}_{15-19}\bullet {w}_{15-19}+{Unemp}_{20-24}\bullet {w}_{20-24}$$, where $${w}_{15-19}$$ and $${w}_{20-24}$$ denote the weights calculated on the basis of data from 2012 reflecting the shares of unemployment rates for age groups 15–19 and 20–24 (i.e. shares correlated to the age structure of the population) in the unemployment rate for the 15–24 age group. Using the available data for the unemployment rate for males aged 15–19 in 2014 and 2015 and females in 2013, approximation accuracy was measured. As absolute differences between empirical and approximated data were not greater than 1.5 pp (and not greater than 3.6% in relative terms), we used approximated unemployment rates for a robustness check. We compared the final results of the study obtained with data from 2012 for unemployment rates for males and females aged 15–19 with the approximated ones. There were not any differences in the clustering (both hierarchical and finally k-means) of the countries and in the results of ANOVA. In the case of the 20–64 age group, a quite stable difference between the unemployment rate for females and males is observed (-2.1, -1.5, -1.9, -2.5, -2.4 and -1.8 between 2012 and 2017). Thus, the use of data from 2012 instead of 2017 does not make a significant difference. As a consequence, we decided to include Latvia in the analysis despite relatively old data on the mentioned unemployment rates.

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Title
A Multidimensional Approach to Intergenerational Balance Measurement: A Cross-Sectional Study for European Countries
Authors
Filip Chybalski
Edyta Marcinkiewicz
Publication date
30-04-2022
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Social Justice Research / Issue 2/2022
Print ISSN: 0885-7466
Electronic ISSN: 1573-6725
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-022-00392-5

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