Does the amount of formal care affect informal care ? Evidence among over‑60s in France

Elsa Perdrix (1, 2, 3, 4) , Quitterie Roquebert (5, 3, 6)

1 Legos - Laboratoire d'Economie et de Gestion des Organisations de Santé
2 LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine
3 PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques
4 Max-Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy
5 CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne
6 BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée

This paper investigates the causal effect of the amount of formal care used on the informal care received by formal careusers. We use an original instrument for formal care volume based on local disparities (NUTS 3 level, 96 units) in the priceof formal care. Using the French CARE survey, we use a two-part model to assess the effect of formal care on the extensiveand the intensive margin of informal care. An increase in the amount of formal care is found to be associated with a smalldecrease in the probability of using informal care. Heterogeneity tests show that this negative effect is mainly driven by helpfor daily activities provided by women. At the intensive margin, informal care is not significantly affected by the amountof formal care. Reforms increasing subsidies for formal care can thus be suspected to have a limited effect on informal carearrangements.

Mots clés: Long term care; Informal and formal care; Instrumental variable

Domaines: Économie et finance quantitative [q-fin]

Elsa Perdrix, Quitterie Roquebert. Does the amount of formal care affect informal care ? Evidence among over‑60s in France. European Journal of Health Economics, 2021, pp.13. ⟨10.1007/s10198-021-01370-5⟩. ⟨hal-03389540⟩