 Home or institution: A comparative analysis of elderly care efficacy in ChinaChunfeng Zhang and Xiaoyan Lei Journal of Asian Economics, 2025, vol. 98, issue C Abstract: Institutional care and home-based care represent two fundamental components of elderly care systems across Asian countries. This study leverages the exogenous shock induced by the Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) pilot program in China to comparatively assess the efficacy of institutional versus home-based care. The analysis reveals that, relative to home-based care, institutional care more effectively addresses the caregiving needs of the elderly and enhances their access to medical services. However, it also entails higher caregiving costs and may contribute to negative outcomes, such as accelerated cognitive decline, deterioration in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and impaired vision, although it does not appear to increase short-term mortality risk. Further investigation suggests that these adverse effects may be linked to limited social engagement and reduced daily activities within institutional settings. These results underscore the critical need for care systems to address not only the basic care and medical requirements of the elderly but also their higher-level needs to improve their overall well-being. Keywords: Institutional care; Home-based care; Elderly care services; Long-Term Care Insurance (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:asieco:v:98:y:2025:i:c:s1049007825000181 DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2025.101894 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Asian Economics is currently edited by C. Wiemer More articles in Journal of Asian Economics from Elsevier |
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