伦理沦丧抑或是伦理转向 现代化视域下中国农村家庭资源的代际分配研究

Ethical Lapse or Ethical Change:On Rural China Family Resource Allocation from Modernization Perspective

本文将家庭资源分配置于三代的代际链,将家庭资源分配中的"亲代优先性"和"成年子代优先性"结合起来形成资源代际分配的四个亚类型,并以此来审视当前农村家庭养老中的资源分配。通过对CHARLS数据的分析发现,个体的现代化程度在一定程度上会影响其家庭资源的代际分配决策,其中,个体的现代化(尤其是经济状况的改进)使其在资源分配时倾向于支持子代。基于此,本文提出,农村家庭资源的代际分配并未呈现"伦理沦丧"特征,上位优先型的分配方式仍在家庭资源代际分配中占据重要位置;造成农村家庭对亲代赡养资源供给不及现象的原因并不总是"伦理危机",而由"伦理转向"所导致的下位优先分配原则可能是上述现象的重要诱因之一。

Studies on Chinese family care for aging parents often overlook the discrepancy in resource allocation among intergenerational chains. This paper uses a three-generation-chain framework to study the resource allocation for elderly care in rural China and proposes a new categorization according to the generation priority. Under this framework, the first two priority groups are offspring and parents, followed by four sub-groups. By analyzing the data of CHARLS, the authors argue that a person＇s modern outlook affects the way of intergenerational family resource allocation. People with more modern outlook are more likely to provide resources to his/her parents or offspring. When modern outlook aligned with higher income, people tend to make their offspring the first priority. Thus,we conclude that it may not be the case of ethical lapse as some studies suggested. With the parents are still the first priority in intergenerational family recourse allocation, the offspring priority may well be just an ＂ethical change＂ ,not ＂ethical lapse＂.