Children and the Elderly in the Economic Life Cycle of the Household: A Comparative Study of Three Groups of Hunter/Gatherers and Horticulturalists

Ronald Lee, University of California at Berkeley
Hillard S. Kaplan, University of New Mexico
Karen L. Kramer, State University of New York at Stony Brook

There are many important questions, still not fully resolved, about the economic activities of children and the elderly in the context of the household life cycle. Data to address questions about the direction and magnitude of intergenerational transfers come from previous field work with a group of Maya horticulturalists (Kramer), and with the Piro, and Machiguenga, two hunter-gatherer/horticultural groups (Kaplan). Our analysis first quantifies changes in individual and family labor supply and consumption in response to household demographic pressures, using models with household fixed effects and age-sex interactions with these fixed effects. We then assess the economic value of children in the three populations and the role that children as a group play in the household economic life cycle. Finally, we evaluate the economic activities of the elderly in relation to their number of descendants and household composition. Analysis builds on earlier work by the three authors.