Analyzing the Sandwich Generation: An Application of SOCSIM for the Brazilian Context

Everton E. C. Lima, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Maria C. Tomas, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais

This paper analyzes the sandwich generation in Brazil. It is known that in a context of fertility delay and lower mortality, people are more likely to have small children at the same time that they have elderly parents, at an age that they already need some kind of care. In this context we investigated : 1) what is the probability of having a small child and a living parent? and 2) which is the average time women spends in the sandwich generation and how it has been changing over time? 3) What is the average age that children experience a grandparent death? We used Brazilian Census data for 1960, 1970, 1980, 1991, 2000, and 2010 and microsimulation to answer these questions.