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Are the grandparents alright? The health consequences of grandparental childcare provision

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  • Peter Eibich

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

  • Xianhua Zai

    (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany)

Abstract

This paper examines the causal effect of childcare provision on grandparents’ health in the US. We propose the sex ratio among older adults’ children as a novel instrument for grandparental childcare provision. Our instrument is rooted in the demographic literature on grandparenthood and exploits that parents of daughters transition to grandparenthood earlier and invest more in their grandchildren than parents of sons. We estimate 2SLS regressions using data from the Health and Retirement Study. The results suggest that childcare provision is not beneficial for grandparents’ health and may even be detrimental for physical functioning and subjective health.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Eibich & Xianhua Zai, 2022. "Are the grandparents alright? The health consequences of grandparental childcare provision," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2022-023, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2022-023
    DOI: 10.4054/MPIDR-WP-2022-023
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    America; child care; health;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

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