VID Colloquium
Do ut des: Do elderly benefit from grandparenting in terms of cognitive abilities?
Bruno Arpino, Universitat Pomepu Fabra, Department of Political and Social Sciences
Date: Thu, 30 Aug. 2012, Time: 10:00 - 11:00
Mental abilities are important to maintain an independent and active life through to old age. Despite the natural decline of cognitive functioning as people become older, cognitive ageing can be prevented and halted. “How” is a topic of high interest in ageing societies. In this paper, we explore to what extent grandparenting, i.e. taking care of grandchildren without the presence of the children’s parents, acts as a protective factor against cognitive ageing. To address reverse causality and other sources of endogeneity, we use an Instrumental Variable approach. The analyses are based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. Past evidence on the topic, mostly limited to grandparents acting as main carer, shows a negative effect of grandparenting on grandparents’ health. We challenge this evidence.
About the presenterBruno Arpino currently works at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, Universitat Pomepu Fabra. Previously, he has been a post-doc research fellow at Bocconi University in Milan (Italy). He obtained a PhD in Applied Statistics from the University of Florence (Italy) in 2008 with a thesis that was awarded by the Italian Statistical Society the price as the best thesis in Applied Statistics 2007/2008. His methodological research interests are in the areas of causal inference and multilevel models. From a substantive point of view he is interested in studying intergenerational relationships, immigrants assimilation, transition to adulthood. He has published articles in international peer-reviewed journals such as Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, Demographic Research, Empirical Economics.