The old folks at home: parental state pension eligibility and adult children’s well-being

We here use UK panel data and establish the causal effect of parental State Pension eligibility on their adult children’s well-being in a Regression Discontinuity Design analysis. The life and income satisfaction of adult children whose mothers become eligible for the State Pension both rise by 0.06 standard deviations in the short run. These impacts are stronger for adult children with lower incomes, who have young children of their own, and who live close to their parents. These findings are consistent with the key role of intergenerational time transfers from older eligible mothers in enhancing their adult children’s well-being.