A house of her own: old age assistance and the living arrangements of older nonmarried women

I investigate the factors that fostered the rise in separate living quarters for older nonmarried women since mid-century by examining the impact of Old Age Assistance on living arrangements in 1940 and 1950. I find that Old Age Assistance substantially increased demand for separate living quarters, but that demand depended upon the rules of the program, in particular whether children were held legally responsible for the care of their aged parents. I argue that more than half of the decline in the fraction of older nonmarried women living with kin from 1950 to 1990 can be attributed to rising Social Security benefits and expanded eligiblity and to the fact that Social Security benefits were given with no strings attached. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.