Societies that more generously engage in resource sharing have longer life expectancies than others, according to a study. Intergenerational sharing of resources can include private transfers, such as relatives assisting financially to cover a child's needs, and public transfers, such as tax-supported retirement benefits. Tobias Vogt and colleagues investigated the link between resource sharing and longevity. The authors obtained population level data for 34 countries on six continents from the National Transfer Accounts project. For each country, the authors totaled the amount of public and private transfers of material goods or money received across lifetimes relative to lifetime income and compared the amounts to national mortality rates and longevity. The authors found that as the percentage of shared income rose, the risk of death decreased linearly. The transfer generosity was associated with life expectancy at birth even after controlling for income inequality and economic development. The nature of sharing--private, as in remittances, or public, such as via public pensions--did not appear to have an effect. According to the authors, resource sharing not only meets societies' material needs but may also reflect social interconnectedness, which benefits human health.
###
Article #19-20978: "Intergenerational resource sharing and mortality in a global perspective," by Tobias Vogt, Fanny Kluge, and Ronald Lee.
MEDIA CONTACT: Tobias C. Vogt, Population Research Centre, University of Groningen, NETHERLANDS; e-mail: < t.c.vogt@rug.nl >
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences