Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Does Informal Care from Children to their Elderly Parents Substitute for Formal Care in Europe?

Contents:

Author Info

  • Eric Bonsang

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of informal care by adult children on the use of long-term care among the elderly in Europe and the effect of the level of the parent’s disability on this relationship. We focus on two types of formal home care that are the most likely to interact with informal care: paid domestic help and nursing care. Using the most recent European data emerging from the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we build a two-part utilization model analyzing both the decision to use each type of formal care or not and the amount of formal care received by the elderly. Instrumental variables estimations are used to control for the potential endogeneity existing between formal and informal care. We find endogeneity of informal care in the decision to receive paid domestic help. Estimation results indicate that informal care substitutes for this type of formal home care. However, we find that this substitution effect tends to disappear as the level of disability of the elderly person increases. Finally, informal care is a weak complement to nursing care, independently of the level of disability. These results highlight the heterogeneous effects of informal care on formal care use and suggest that informal care is an effective substitute for long-term care as long as the needs of the elderly are low and require unskilled type of care. Any policy encouraging informal care to decrease long-term care expenditures should take it into account to assess its effectiveness.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://www2.ulg.ac.be/crepp/papers/crepp-wp200801.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Centre de Recherche en Economie Publique et de la Population (CREPP) (Research Center on Public and Population Economics) HEC-Management School, University of Liège in its series CREPP Working Papers with number 0801.

as in new window
Length:
Date of creation: 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:rpp:wpaper:0801

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Boulevard du Rectorat, 7, Batiment 31, boite 39, 4000 Liege
Phone: + 32 (0) 4 366 31 08
Fax: + 32 (0) 4 366 31 06
Web page: http://www2.ulg.ac.be/crepp/
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords:

Other versions of this item:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Van Houtven, Courtney Harold & Norton, Edward C., 2008. "Informal care and Medicare expenditures: Testing for heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 134-156, January.
  2. Steven Stern, 1995. "Estimating Family Long-Term Care Decisions in the Presence of Endogenous Child Characteristics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 30(3), pages 551-580.
  3. Tarja Viitanen, 2007. "Informal And Formal Care In Europe," Working Papers 2007010, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2007.
  4. John Bound & Michael Schoenbaum & Todd R. Stinebrickner & Timothy Waidmann, 1998. "The Dynamic Effects of Health on the Labor Force Transitions of Older Workers," NBER Working Papers 6777, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Dwyer, Debra Sabatini & Mitchell, Olivia S., 1999. "Health problems as determinants of retirement: Are self-rated measures endogenous?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 173-193, April.
  6. Michael Baker & Mark Stabile & Catherine Deri, 2001. "What do Self-Reported, Objective, Measures of Health Measure?," NBER Working Papers 8419, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  7. John Bound, 1991. "Self-Reported Versus Objective Measures of Health in Retirement Models," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 26(1), pages 106-138.
  8. Newey, Whitney K., 1987. "Efficient estimation of limited dependent variable models with endogenous explanatory variables," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 231-250, November.
  9. McGarry, Kathleen, 1999. "Inter vivos transfers and intended bequests," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(3), pages 321-351, September.
  10. K. Bolin & B. Lindgren & P. Lundborg, 2008. "Informal and formal care among single-living elderly in Europe," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 393-409.
  11. Liliana E. Pezzin & Peter Kemper & James Reschovsky, 1996. "Does Publicly Provided Home Care Substitute for Family Care? Experimental Evidence with Endogenous Living Arrangements," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(3), pages 650-676.
  12. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-55, March-Apr.
  13. Duan, Naihua, et al, 1983. "A Comparison of Alternative Models for the Demand for Medical Care," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 1(2), pages 115-26, April.
  14. Peter C. Coyte & Mark Stabile, 2001. "Household Responses to Public Home Care Programs," NBER Working Papers 8523, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  15. Ettner, Susan L, 1994. "The Effect of the Medicaid Home Care Benefit on Long-Term Care Choices of the Elderly," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 32(1), pages 103-27, January.
  16. Edward C. Norton & Courtney Harold Van Houtven, 2006. "Inter-vivos Transfers and Exchange," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 73(1), pages 157–172, July.
  17. Van Houtven, Courtney Harold & Norton, Edward C., 2004. "Informal care and health care use of older adults," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 1159-1180, November.
  18. Charles, Kerwin Kofi & Sevak, Purvi, 2005. "Can family caregiving substitute for nursing home care?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 1174-1190, November.
  19. Carmichael, Fiona & Charles, Susan, 2003. "The opportunity costs of informal care: does gender matter?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 781-803, September.
  20. Comas-Herrera, Adelina & Wittenberg, Raphael & Gori, Cristiano & Costa-i-Font, Joan & di Maio, Alessandra & Patxot, Concepció & Pickard, Linda & Pozzi, Alessandro & Rothgang, Heinz, 2006. "Future long-term care expenditure in Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom," Open Access publications from London School of Economics and Political Science http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/, London School of Economics and Political Science.
  21. Rivers, Douglas & Vuong, Quang H., 1988. "Limited information estimators and exogeneity tests for simultaneous probit models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 347-366, November.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Gopi Shah Goda & John B. Shoven & Sita Nataraj Slavov, 2011. "Does Widowhood Explain Gender Differences in Out-of-Pocket Medical Spending Among the Elderly?," NBER Working Papers 17440, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. DE DONDER, Philippe & PESTIEAU, Pierre, 2011. "Private, social and self insurance for long-term care: A political economy analysis," CORE Discussion Papers 2011053, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
  3. Brenda Gannon & Bérengère Davin, 2010. "Use of formal and informal care services among older people in Ireland and France," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer, vol. 11(5), pages 499-511, October.
  4. Kristian Bolin & Daniel Hedblom & Anna Lindgren & Bjorn Lindgren, 2010. "Asymmetric Information and the Demand for Voluntary Health Insurance in Europe," NBER Working Papers 15689, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. de Meijer, Claudine & Koopmanschap, Marc & d' Uva, Teresa Bago & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2011. "Determinants of long-term care spending: Age, time to death or disability?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 425-438, March.
  6. Evelyn Korn & Matthias Wrede, 2012. "The Effect of Long-Term-Care Subsidies on Female Labor Supply and Fertility," CESifo Working Paper Series 3931, CESifo Group Munich.
  7. Evelyn Korn & Matthias Wrede, 2012. "The effect of long term subsidies on female labor supply and fertility," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201243, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
  8. Arnault, Louis & Goltz, Andreas & Wittwer, Jérôme, . "Micro-econometric analysis of care for the dependent elderly in France : How do formal and informal care interact ?," Open Access publications from Université Paris-Dauphine urn:hdl:123456789/9534, Université Paris-Dauphine.
  9. Piet Bakx & Erik Schut & Eddy van Doorslaer, 2013. "Can Risk Adjustment prevent Risk Selection in a Competitive Long-Term Care Insurance Market?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-017/V, Tinbergen Institute.
  10. Sergi Jim�nez-Mart�n & Cristina Vilaplana Prieto, 2013. "Do Spanish Informal Caregivers Come to the Rescue of Dependent People with Formal Care Unmet Needs?," Working Papers 693, Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.
  11. Tomini, Sonila & Groot, Wim & Pavlova, Milena, 2012. "The determinants of home based long-term care utilisation in Western European countries," UNU-MERIT Working Paper Series 069, United Nations University, Maastricht Economic and social Research and training centre on Innovation and Technology.
  12. Fevang, Elisabeth & Kvrendokk, Snorre & Røed, Knut, 2009. "Informal Care and Labor Supply," HERO On line Working Paper Series 2008:8, Oslo University, Health Economics Research Programme.
  13. Sergi Jiménez-Martín & Cristina Vilaplana Prieto, 2013. "Do Spanish informal caregivers come to the rescue of dependent people with formal care unmet needs?," Economics Working Papers 1366, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
  14. Piet Bakx & Erik Schut & Eddy van Doorslaer, 2013. "Can Risk Adjustment prevent Risk Selection in a Competitive Long-Term Care Insurance Market?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-017/V, Tinbergen Institute.
  15. Elisabeth Fevang & Snorre Kverndokk & Knut Røed, 2012. "Labor supply in the terminal stages of lone parents’ lives," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 1399-1422, October.
  16. Lee, M-J; & Kim, Y-S.;, 2011. "Effects of Informal Family Care on Formal Health Care: Zero-Inflated Endogenous Count for Censored Response," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 11/10, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
  17. Annika Meng, 2009. "Do Parents Buy Their Children's Attention?," Ruhr Economic Papers 0153, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
  18. Angermann, Annette & Eichhorst, Werner, 2012. "Report No. 45: Unterstützende Dienstleistungen für ältere Menschen im europäischen Vergleich," IZA Research Reports 45, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  19. de Meijer C & Koopmanschap M & Bago d & Uva T & van Doorslaer E, 2009. "Time To Drop Time-To-Death? –Unravelling The Determinants of LTC Spending In The Netherlands," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 09/33, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
  20. Arnaulty, Louis & Goltzy, Andreas, . "A micro-econometric analysis of care for the dependent elderly living at home in France: Is there a crowding-out effect of informal caregivers when an elderly dependent receives professional home care," Open Access publications from Université Paris-Dauphine urn:hdl:123456789/10723, Université Paris-Dauphine.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rpp:wpaper:0801

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Mathieu Lefebvre).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.