The generational conflict hypothesis predicts that the elderly might use their
political power to reduce public resources allocated to children. It is usually
tested by exploiting the localized nature of school funding in the US. This
paper takes a different approach using cross-country data on family benefits.
The evidence points to a positive relation between the generosity of these
benefits and the share of the elderly in the electorate of the country. The
effects that other studies have found at the local level are thus not observed
at the national one. The difference in approach and findings between this
paper and previous ones can contribute to the debate on local school
funding. The paper also suggests that the effect of the elderly may reflect the
larger proportion of women in that age group.
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