Care risks: how concerns about looking after older family members increase support for government spending on the retired
研究发现，工作年龄成年人因担心未来需为年长亲属提供经济或实际帮助，转而支持增加对退休人员的政府支出，这解释了为何代际不平等加剧下仍存在对老年福利的广泛支持。
In an era of increased intergenerational inequality, why do working-age adults continue to support government spending on the retired? Previous explanations for the popularity of such programs include calculations of expected reciprocity and evaluations of deservingness. We introduce an additional consideration: perceived vulnerability to ‘care risks’. That is, the fear of having to provide substantial financial or practical assistance to a close older family member. We argue this leads voters to insure themselves by supporting government assistance to the old as a substitute. Combining novel evidence from a specially-commissioned national survey and survey experiment conducted in Great Britain, we show that prime working-age adults’ (aged 18–59) concerns about having to personally provide for older relatives helps explain their enthusiasm for greater state investment in the retired. Familial concerns are an understudied constraint on age-based political polarisation. Our study provides important insights into how elderly-oriented public policy proposals might be justified to younger voters, and how family ties and expectations can explain public spending preferences in other generations.