Parents' needs, family structure, and regular intergenerational financial exchange in Chinese cities

Financial transfers between parents and their non-coresident adult children are studied with survey data from nine Chinese cities in 1987. The predominant flow is from children to parents, and money from children accounts for nearly a third of these parents' incomes. Parents' receipt of assistance is directly associated with parents' needs, is more likely directed to widowed mothers, and less likely to widowed fathers. Parents with more nonresident children are more likely to receive than to give help. Living with a child does not alter the odds of giving or receiving, but it reduces the amount given or received.