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The Role of Culture in Long-term Care

Author

Listed:
  • Elena Gentili

    (Institute of Economics (IdEP), Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI), Switzerland)

  • Giuliano Masiero

    (Institute of Economics (IdEP), Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI), Switzerland; Department of Management, Information and Production Engineering (DIGIP), University of Bergamo, Italy)

  • Fabrizio Mazzonna

    (Institute of Economics (IdEP), Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI), Switzerland)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to assess the role of culture in shaping individual preferences to- wards different long-term care (LTC) arrangements. The analysis uses Swiss data from two administrative databases covering the universe of formal LTC providers between 2007 and 2013. Switzerland is a multi-cultural confederation where state administrative borders do not always coincide with cultural groups. For this reason, we exploit the within-state variation in cultural groups to show evidence about cultural differences in LTC use. In particular, we use spatial regression discontinuity design (RDD) at the language border between French-speaking and German-speaking individuals living in bilingual cantons to provide causal interpretation of the differences in formal LTC use between these two main cultural groups. Our results suggest a strong role of culture in shaping household decisions about formal LTC use. In particular, elderly people residing in regions speaking a Latin language (French, Italian and Romansh) use home-based care services more intensely and enter in nursing homes at older ages and in worse health conditions with respect to elderly people in German regions. This difference across the two cultural groups are driven by different preferences towards LTC arrangements.

Suggested Citation

  • Elena Gentili & Giuliano Masiero & Fabrizio Mazzonna, 2016. "The Role of Culture in Long-term Care," IdEP Economic Papers 1605, USI Università della Svizzera italiana.
    • Handle: RePEc:lug:wpidep:1605
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    1. Iegor Rudnytskyi & Joël Wagner, 2019. "Drivers of Old-Age Dependence and Long-Term Care Usage in Switzerland—A Structural Equation Model Approach," Risks, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-20, August.
    2. Daniele Mantegazzi & Philip McCann & Viktor Venhorst, 2020. "The impact of language borders on the spatial decay of agglomeration and competition spillovers," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 558-577, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Long-term care; Culture; Spatial RDD;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • C26 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation

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