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Based on European National Transfer Accounts data from 2010, this paper quantifies and evaluates the balance of intergenerational transfer flows in 16 EU countries, including transfers in the form of unpaid household work. On average, the value of net transfers received by a child amounts to sixteen times the labour income of a full-time worker, and the net transfers received by an elderly person to six times the labour income of a full-time worker. Intergenerational transfers can be regarded as the reciprocal exchange between two generations: the size of the transfers to the child generation determines their potential to generate income and finance public transfers to the elderly population once they enter employment. We develop and calculate an indicator to analyse if there is a balance between transfers to children and transfers expected by the elderly population. The results indicate that in most of the analysed countries the human capital investments in children are far too low to finance the generous transfers to the elderly population in the future.

Background: While the importance of unpaid household labour is recognised in total economic output, little is known about the demographics of household production and consumption. Objective: Our goal is to give a comprehensive estimation on the value of household production and its consumption by age and gender and analyse nonmarket economic transfers in 14 European countries based on publicly available harmonised data. Methods: We introduce a novel imputation method of harmonised European time use (HETUS) data to the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) in order to assign time spent on home production to consumers in households and estimate time transfers. Moreover, monetary values are attributed to household production activities using data on earnings from the Structure of Earnings Survey (SES). Results: We show that the nonmarket economic life cycle of men differs from that of women. The gender gap in household production is not evenly distributed over the life cycle. Women of working age contribute the most in net terms, while the main beneficiaries of household goods and services are children and to a lesser extent adult men. These patterns are similar across countries, with variations in the gender- and age-specific levels of home production and consumption. Conclusions: In Europe, in the national economy, intergenerational flows are important in sustaining both childhood and old age. In contrast, in the household economy, intergenerational transfers flow mostly towards children. Contribution: We add a new focus to the research on household production: While keeping the gender aspect, we demonstrate the importance of the life cycle component in household production.

While the importance of unpaid household labour in total economic output is recognized, little is known about the demographics of its production and consumption. Our goal is to give a comprehensive estimation on the value of production and consumption of unpaid labour by age and gender and analyse non-market economic transfers in 14 European countries, which represent about 80 per cent of the population of the European Union. Our calculations are based on publicly available harmonised data. We introduce a novel imputation method of harmonised European time use data (HETUS) to the EU income survey (EU-SILC) in order to assign time spent on home production to consumers in households. Monetary values are attributed to unpaid labour activities using harmonised data on earnings (SES). Apart from pointing out key country specific results, we make two important observations on the age patterns of non-market economic activity. First, the economic lifecycle of men and women differ. The gender gap in household production is not evenly distributed over the lifecycle and cohorts of working age women contribute the most in net terms. Secondly, the main beneficiaries of unpaid household labour are children, not adult men, nor the elderly. In contrast with the national economy, in which intergenerational flows are important in sustaining both childhood and old age, working age people almost exclusively support only children in the household economies of Europe. Older cohorts consume household goods and services mostly produced by them. With our analysis we add a new focus to the research on home production. While keeping the gender aspect, we demonstrate the importance of the lifecycle component of unpaid household labour.