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Care provision at the time of the Covid-19: who suffers most?

Author

Listed:
  • Elena Bassoli

    (Department of Economics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice)

  • Agar Brugiavini

    (Department of Economics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice; Institute For Fiscal Studies)

  • Irene Ferrari

    (Department of Economics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice; Netspar)

Abstract

This paper focuses on the changes in care provision at the time of the COVID-19 outbreak by exploiting variation in lockdown policies across Europe. We use the SHARE-COVID-19 survey, which involves about 50000 respondents of age 50 and over in 26 countries, to investigate how the stringency of the policy measures have affected care provision. Our study is based on the linkage of the SHARE-COVID-19 data with an individual specific "stringency index" which measures the intensity of the restriction policies and the degree of individual's exposure. We find that older individuals, low-income individuals and people affected by limitations in everyday life faced a higher probability of receiving help because of the lockdown policies. Women and people in the age group 50-65 were more likely to provide help/care, but we also uncover a complex interaction with the labour market condition of caregivers. Lockdown policies hit hard individuals who were already receiving care as they experienced a form of rationing, both due to higher financial costs and travelling restrictions. Since these individuals are already among the most fragile in society, our evidence raises concern and calls for a re-design of the welfare system.

Suggested Citation

  • Elena Bassoli & Agar Brugiavini & Irene Ferrari, 2021. "Care provision at the time of the Covid-19: who suffers most?," Working Papers 2021:10, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    • Handle: RePEc:ven:wpaper:2021:10
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Massimiliano Bratti & Tommaso Frattini & Francesco Scervini, 2018. "Grandparental availability for child care and maternal labor force participation: pension reform evidence from Italy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 1239-1277, October.
    2. Evamdrou, Maria & Falkingham, Jane & Qin, Min & Vlachantoni, Athina, 2020. "Older and ‘staying at home’ during lockdown: informal care receipt during the COVID-19 pandemic amongst people aged 70 and over in the UK," SocArXiv 962dy, Center for Open Science.
    3. Ainoa Aparicio Fenoll, 2020. "The uneven impact of women's retirement on their daughters' employment," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 795-821, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    Cited by:

    1. Elena Bassoli & Agar Brugiavini, 2023. "Unequal care provision: evidence from the Share-Corona Survey," Working Papers 2023:05, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Care provision; caregiving; caregiver; COVID-19; SHARE data; SHARE-COVID-19 questionnaire; lockdown policies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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