The Burden of Informal Care: Does Looking After Aging Parents Weaken Social Ties?

Zhenghao Chen (), Yarine Fawaz () and Pedro Mira ()
Additional contact information
Zhenghao Chen: UCL, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/
Yarine Fawaz: CEMFI and UAM, https://www.cemfi.es/
Pedro Mira: CEMFI, Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros, https://www.cemfi.es/

Working Papers from CEMFI

Abstract: Informal care provides the bulk of long-term care in many European countries, yet its social costs for caregivers remain poorly understood. Using panel data from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and an instrumental-variable design based on parental poor health, we estimate the causal effect of intensive caregiving on the social connectedness of European women aged 50–70. We find that caregiving erodes the quality of social ties without changing their number: network satisfaction and a sizeadjusted social connectedness quality index both fall significantly. Effects are concentrated in countries with limited formal long-term care provision, where the first stage is strong. Complementary evidence shows that associational activities predict long-run survival, connecting the social erosion we identify to mortality risks documented in the epidemiological literature. Policies addressing caregiver burden should account for social isolation as a distinct cost.

Keywords: Informal care; social connectedness; mortality; aging; long-term care. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 I14 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-08
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