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Time-Bound Opportunity Costs of Informal Care: Consequences for Access to Professional Care, Caregiver Support, and Labour Supply Estimates

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  • Hassink, Wolter

    (Utrecht University)

  • van den Berg, Bernard

    (University of York)

Abstract

Patterns of informal care are documented throughout the day with Dutch time use diary data. The diary data enable us to identify a, so far overlooked, source of opportunity costs of informal care, i.e. the necessity to perform particular tasks of informal care at specific moments of the day. Some care tasks are relatively unshiftable, while other tasks are shiftable implying that they can be performed at other moments of the day or even on different days. In particular, household and organization activities seem to be shiftable for employed caregivers, while personal care seems to contain unshiftable activities. This implies an additional opportunity cost of providing personal care tasks. As the care recipient’s need for care may be related to the possibility to shift informal care throughout the day, we conclude that one should be careful with using care need as an instrument of informal care in labour supply equations.

Suggested Citation

  • Hassink, Wolter & van den Berg, Bernard, 2011. "Time-Bound Opportunity Costs of Informal Care: Consequences for Access to Professional Care, Caregiver Support, and Labour Supply Estimates," IZA Discussion Papers 5433, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5433
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    Cited by:

    1. Jakob D’herde & Wesley Gruijthuijsen & Dominique Vanneste & Veerle Draulans & Hilde Heynen, 2021. "“I Could Not Manage This Long-Term, Absolutely Not.” Aging in Place, Informal Care, COVID-19, and the Neighborhood in Flanders (Belgium)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-14, June.
    2. Van Houtven, Courtney Harold & Coe, Norma B. & Skira, Meghan M., 2013. "The effect of informal care on work and wages," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 240-252.
    3. Sean Urwin & Yiu‐Shing Lau & Gunn Grande & Matt Sutton, 2023. "Informal caregiving, time use and experienced wellbeing," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 356-374, February.
    4. Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2023. "Caregiving subsidies and spousal early retirement intentions," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(4), pages 550-589, October.
    5. D.S. Possenriede & W.H.J. Hassink & J. Plantenga, 2014. "Does temporal and locational flexibility of work reduce absenteeism?," Working Papers 14-09, Utrecht School of Economics.
    6. Nguyen, Ha Trong & Connelly, Luke Brian, 2014. "The effect of unpaid caregiving intensity on labour force participation: Results from a multinomial endogenous treatment model," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 115-122.
    7. Geyer, J.; Korfhage, T.;, 2017. "Long-term care reform and the labor supply of informal caregivers – evidence from a quasi-experiment," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 17/20, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    8. van den Berg, Bernard & Fiebig, Denzil G. & Hall, Jane, 2014. "Well-being losses due to care-giving," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 123-131.
    9. Rebecca E Lacey & Anne McMunn & Elizabeth Webb, 2018. "Informal caregiving and markers of adiposity in the UK Household Longitudinal Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(7), pages 1-15, July.
    10. Manuel, Ruiz-Adame Reina & M. Carmen, González-Camacho & Alfredo Mainar-Causapé, 2015. "An analysis of caregiver profile and its impact on employment situation: primary caregivers of patients of Alzheimer´s and other dementias in the South Western of Spain," Economic Analysis Working Papers (2002-2010). Atlantic Review of Economics (2011-2016), Colexio de Economistas de A Coruña, Spain and Fundación Una Galicia Moderna, vol. 1, pages 1-1, December.
    11. Huimin Zhang & Xiaoyi Zhang & Youhua Zhao & Jianfeng Huang & Wenwei Liu, 2020. "Impact of Formal Care Use on Informal Care from Children after the Launch of Long-Term Care Insurance in Shanghai, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-10, April.
    12. Bauer, Jan Michael & Sousa-Poza, Alfonso, 2015. "Impacts of Informal Caregiving on Caregiver Employment, Health, and Family," IZA Discussion Papers 8851, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Ciani, Emanuele, 2012. "Informal adult care and caregivers' employment in Europe," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 155-164.
    14. Urwin, Sean & Lau, Yiu-Shing & Grande, Gunn & Sutton, Matthew, 2023. "Informal caregiving and the allocation of time: implications for opportunity costs and measurement," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    15. Michio Yuda & Jinkook Lee, 2016. "Effects of Informal Caregivers' Health on Care Recipients," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 67(2), pages 192-210, June.
    16. Z.V. Kambourova & W.H.J. Hassink, 2019. "Husband’s labour supply after a breast cancer diagnosis," Working Papers 19-10, Utrecht School of Economics.
    17. Daniel Possenriede & Wolter H.J. Hassink & Janneke Plantenga, 2016. "Does temporal and locational flexibility of work increase the supply of working hours? Evidence from the Netherlands," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-34, December.
    18. Jacobs, Josephine C. & Lilly, Meredith B. & Ng, Carita & Coyte, Peter C., 2013. "The fiscal impact of informal caregiving to home care recipients in Canada: How the intensity of care influences costs and benefits to government," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 102-109.
    19. Nishimura, Y.; Oikawa, M.;, 2017. "Effects of Informal Elderly Care on Labor Supply: Exploitation of Government Intervention on the Supply Side of Elderly Care Market," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 17/02, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    20. Daniel Possenriede & Wolter Hassink & Janneke Plantenga, 2014. "Does temporal and locational flexibility of work increase the labour supply of part-timers?," Working Papers 14-11, Utrecht School of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    paid work; informal care; opportunity cost; use of time; labor supply; joint production;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty

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