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The cyclicality of informal care

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  • Mommaerts, Corina
  • Truskinovsky, Yulya

Abstract

This paper measures the cyclicality of an important input into elderly health: informal care. Using independent survey measures of informal caregiving and care receipt over the past two decades, we find that informal care from adult children to their elderly parents is countercyclical. By contrast, informal care from spouses is procyclical among individuals in their sixties. We find little corresponding change in the use of formal care, highlighting the potential for unmet care needs across the business cycle. These findings suggest that informal health inputs may play an important role in the interpretation of the cyclicality of elderly mortality.

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  • Mommaerts, Corina & Truskinovsky, Yulya, 2020. "The cyclicality of informal care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:71:y:2020:i:c:s0167629619309397
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2020.102306
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    2. Urwin, Sean & Lau, Yiu-Shing & Grande, Gunn & Sutton, Matt, 2021. "The extent and predictors of discrepancy between provider and recipient reports of informal caregiving," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    3. Almuhaisen, Abdulmohsen & Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina & Furtado, Delia, 2023. "Immigration Enforcement and the Institutionalization of Elderly Americans," IZA Discussion Papers 16357, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Fischer, Björn & Haan, Peter & Sanchez, Santiago Salazar, 2022. "The effect of unemployment on care provision," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    5. Liu, Yinan & Zai, Xianhua, 2022. "The Unintended Effect of Medicaid Aging Waivers on Informal Caregiving," EconStor Preprints 249566, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    6. Yinan Liu & Emma Zai, 2023. "The unintended effect of Medicaid aging waivers on informal caregiving," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2023-006, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.

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