Does it Matter Who Cares for You? The Effect of Substituting Informal with Formal Personal Care on the Care Recipients' Health

26 Pages Posted: 2 Aug 2022 Last revised: 4 Aug 2022

See all articles by Bruce Hollingsworth

Bruce Hollingsworth

Lancaster University

Asako Ohinata

University of Leicester

Matteo Picchio

Marche Polytechnic University - Department of Economic and Social Science; IZA Institute of Labor Economics; SHERPPA - Ghent University

Ian Walker

Lancaster University

Abstract

We show that a Scottish policy reform, which introduced free formal personal home care for those aged 65 and above, reduced the probability and the hours of receiving informal personal care. Moreover, we find that the group of individuals that most benefited from the policy introduction, i.e. women aged 75 and above, experienced the largest fall in informal care. We go on to investigate whether such reductions in informal and increases in formal personal care impacted on the care recipients' health outcomes. Our results demonstrate that switching from informal to formal care does very little to the recipients' hospital usage and health outcomes.

Keywords: long-term elderly care, ageing, financial support, difference-in-differences

JEL Classification: C21, D14, I18, J14

Suggested Citation

Hollingsworth, Bruce and Ohinata, Asako and Picchio, Matteo and Walker, Ian, Does it Matter Who Cares for You? The Effect of Substituting Informal with Formal Personal Care on the Care Recipients' Health. IZA Discussion Paper No. 15457, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4178933 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4178933

Bruce Hollingsworth (Contact Author)

Lancaster University ( email )

Lancaster LA1 4YX
United Kingdom

Asako Ohinata

University of Leicester ( email )

University Road
Leicester, LE1 7RH
United Kingdom

Matteo Picchio

Marche Polytechnic University - Department of Economic and Social Science ( email )

Piazzale Martelli, 8
60121 Ancona
Italy
+39 071 220 7176 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.univpm.it/matteo.picchio

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

SHERPPA - Ghent University ( email )

Tweekerkenstraat 2
Ghent, B-9000
Belgium

Ian Walker

Lancaster University ( email )

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