Résultat de la recherche
A retirement mobilities approach to transnational ageing
Transnational ageing processes are usually studied by focusing on the various cross-border practices and mobilities of different categories of ageing migrants. This paper introduces a retirement mobilities approach as an analytical framework that draws on both transnational studies and the new mobilities paradigm to widen the theoretical and empirical debates. It argues that both migrant and non-migrant populations, as well as human and non-human cross-border circulations, have to be taken into account when studying transnational ageing. Based on a mixed-methods study combining original data from a quantitative survey conducted in Switzerland with residents 55+ and semi-structured interviews held in Spain and Switzerland with older adults receiving a Swiss pension, we demonstrate the heuristic value of this approach. Indeed, empirical findings indicate that older adults with and without a migration background represent an internationally mobile population with similar mobility aspirations and transnational lifestyles. However, the motivations driving these two groups’ transnational mobility differ significantly. Moreover, transnational circulations of financial resources, and in particular retirement pensions, are interlinked with mobility in old age. To conclude, a retirement mobilities approach sets a new research agenda, inviting scholars to examine transnational ageing beyond the ageing-migration nexus.
Inégalités de patrimoine et bien-être subjectif chez les seniors en Europe
The four types of wealth and happiness: how different forms of wealth affect the subjective well-being of the eldely in Europe
From one recession to another: Longitudinal impacts on the quality of life of vulnerable groups
At the beginning of the 2000s, Switzerland went through two global recessions: the Dot-com crisis and the Great Recession. Even though it experienced milder effects compared to its European neighbours, Swiss unemployment increased considerably compared to its status quo. This paper aims to explore the resilience of vulnerable groups to these economic downturns using both objective (income poverty and material deprivation) and subjective (wellbeing and satisfaction with the financial situation) indicators of quality of life. To analyse how quality of life evolved since the early 2000s, we use a longitudinal database: the Swiss Household Panel. When both objective and subjective indicators were used, our results suggest that the dot-com crisis had a stronger negative effect on vulnerable groups. This was particularly true with regards to single parents and large families who experienced a marked decline when assessed using objective indicators. Disadvantaged groups during the first crisis reacted in different ways during the second crisis. Some groups (the unemployed, the low-educated and the solo self-employed) experienced some scarring effects; others were resilient and continued with their normal trends (migrants and the young) or registered an improvement in their conditions (single parents and large families). Single parents are the group that performed better during and after the Great Recession according to both objective and subjective indicators.
Inclusiveness Plus Mixed Methods: An Innovative Research Design on Transnational Practices of Older Adults
This paper assesses the challenges and the benefits of 2 methodological approaches for improving the study of transnational mobilities of older adults: mixed methods and inclusiveness. The first approach refers to a mixed-methods research design based on surveys and qualitative interviews. We share our experience of conducting a “fully mixed-concurrent-equal-status-design” research project, for which we collected data through quantitative surveys on transnational practices of people aged 55+. Furthermore, we conducted semistructured interviews with adults aged 64+ living or who have lived in Switzerland and spend part of the year in Spain. The second approach relates to the use of an inclusive sample diversified in terms of nationality and migration backgrounds. The inclusive design affects the formulation of questions asked to all participants (and the response options provided in the survey), as well as decisions related to language choices and translations. These elements have to be considered to ensure that older adults from different backgrounds feel included. In a research project on transnational mobility of older adults, conducting an inclusive plus mixed-methods research project pushes researchers to find strategies to balance research objectives with available resources. Maximizing the research team’s methodological background appears to be a suitable approach to address different population groups while working within a budget.
Comparison of survey data on wealth in Switzerland
Beyond income, wealth is one of most relevant components among national and international indicators of household finances. Three surveys that include Switzerland have recently integrated questions about wealth and its components. These surveys are the Swiss Household Panel -SHP- (2016), the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions -CH-SILC- (2015), and the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe -SHARE- (2015). Following three important criteria suggested by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), namely relevance, coherence and accuracy, this study systematically compares data on housing and financial wealth. The analysis addresses question wording, the comparison with national accounts and accuracy. Results suggest that SHARE is the most relevant survey in terms of financial wealth and total net worth. CH-SILC is a coherent survey that allows for additional analysis on subjective living conditions, while the SHP is an ecological survey in terms of the number of questions on wealth.
An intergenerational perspective on the risk of poverty: integrating wealth to measure poverty
Currently, the debate of national statistical offices and scholars working on poverty is on how to include wealth in the classical measure of income poverty. Holding the income-poverty threshold fixed, some studies show that wealth-corrected poverty rates of the elderly are much more affected than those of the rest of the population. In addition, the decline in poverty rates for the elderly is higher when the value of the household’s main residence is included than when only non-housing wealth is taken into account. However, as the main residence is difficult to sell to foster consumption, it remains questionable whether this component should be added in the measurement of the risk of poverty. Difficult choices that remain to be made in the creation of a composite measure of poverty based on income and wealth are not only which components and which poverty threshold should be used, but also which methodology to aggregate income and wealth and which equivalence scale to adjust for different household members should be applied. This contribution focuses specifically on this last issue of equivalence scales highlighting how this methodological choice changes the risk of poverty among the elderly. The analysis is run with CH-SILC 2015 and on its specific module on wealth. Results show how methodological choices change the risk of poverty for different age groups in a significant way.
The Rolling 50s (and More): Cars and Life Satisfaction Among Seniors Across Europe
Cars represent a valuable real asset that most individuals use on a daily basis. Although cars are a form of material prosperity like income and other forms of wealth, the link between cars and subjective well-being (SWB) is barely covered in the existing literature. Furthermore, few existing contributions are scattered across specific cultural contexts. Here, we analyze the relationship between cars and the SWB of seniors in different European countries using the SHARE dataset. We construct multilevel and fixed-effect models to explore the extent of economic, infrastructural, and cultural factors and how they can explain this relationship. The results show that the value of the car is, among all wealth components (houses, bank account, bonds, stocks, mutual funds, debts and mortgages), the form of wealth most related to life satisfaction. In addition, cars matter less (a) in affluent societies, (b) where rail infrastructure is more developed, and (c) where people hold fewer materialistic values. We discuss these results in the framework of the functional and positional value of cars, i.e., respectively, the value derived from it regardless of others and the value derived from it vis-à-vis others.
With whom do we compare our income? The effect of gendered income comparisons on subjective well-being
Income comparisons are often performed through the construction of reference groups. These groups are highly dependent on the sociodemographic characteristics collected by survey data. Gender is usually included in these characteristics only when the number of cases is large enough to have separate samples for women and men. So far, there has been no empirical proof on the fact that comparisons are within or between people of the same sex. With the support of specific questions collected in three waves of the pretest of the German Socio-Economic Panel, this study analyses income comparisons within and between gender groups. Results suggest that income comparisons are mainly within people of the same sex. On average, women compare more than men independently from the gender composition of the sector of employment. Despite the predominance of within-gender comparisons, between-gender comparisons exist. Regressions that test the effect of income comparisons and reference groups on subjective well-being are indeed better explained when gender is not included as a characteristic for the construction of reference groups.