The "Demise of the Caregiving Daughter"? Gender Employment Gaps and the Use of Formal and Informal Care in Europe

Eric Bonsang () and Joan Costa-Font
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Eric Bonsang: Université Paris-Dauphine

No 16615, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We revisit the universality of the "caregiving daughter effect", which holds that daughters tend to provide more care to their older parents than sons. Based on rich European data, we document evidence of such an effect in countries with large gender disparities in employment rates, where having daughters also depresses the demand for formal care. In contrast, we find evidence consistent with the "demise of the caregiving daughter" when exposed to narrower gender gaps, where there is no more daughters' effect on formal care. These results point to a reconsideration of caregiving system design amidst the rise of female employment.

Keywords: informal care; formal care; daughters; caregiving daughter effect; gender employment gap; Europe; care substitution; social norms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 J14 J3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 2023-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-eur, nep-gen, nep-lab and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: The “Demise of the Caregiving Daughter”? Gender Employment Gaps and the Use of Formal and Informal Care in Europe (2023)
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