Socio-economic and health conditions of the elderly in Egypt. The role of public and private solidarity

Aurora Angeli, Università di Bologna
Antonio Macaluso, Università di Bologna

Egypt is facing a process of demographic ageing, which implies changes in the well-being of the elderly and inevitable modifications in family composition as well as in cross-generational ties. This paper evaluates the spread of vulnerability among old Egyptian people and the role of public and private solidarity towards the elderly. In a gender and geographic perspective, we apply multivariate analysis techniques to individual data from Egypt Labor Market Survey 2006 and 2012, to evaluate the situations of older people and the way public solidarity and family flows support their needs. Our analysis focuses on: - socio-economic and health characteristics of the elderly; - characteristics and trends of late-life living arrangements, with attention on intergenerational co-residence; -public support and intergenerational transfers within families, including remittances from family members who emigrated and live abroad. A particular attention is devoted to the elderly living alone or with the spouse only.