Caring for Carers? The Effect of Public Subsidies on the Wellbeing of Unpaid Carers

Joan Costa-Font, D’Amico, Francesco () and Cristina Vilaplana-Prieto ()
Additional contact information
D’Amico, Francesco: CEP, London School of Economics
Cristina Vilaplana-Prieto: Universidad de Murcia

No 15369, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study the effect of long-term care (LTC) subsidies and supports on the wellbeing of unpaid caregivers. We draw on evidence from a policy intervention, that universalized previously means-tested caregiving supports in Scotland, known as free personal care (FPC). We document causal evidence of an increase in the well-being (happiness) of unpaid carers after the introduction of FPC. Our estimates suggest economically relevant improvements in the happiness (12pp increase in subjective wellbeing) among caregivers exposed to FPC and that provide at least 35 hours of care per week. Consistently, these results are larger among women and non-actively employed caregivers (17pp increase in happiness). Estimates are not driven by selection into caregiving (we find similar wellbeing effects among caregivers at baseline and caregivers throughout the sample), and are driven by income effects of FPC among caregivers.

Keywords: caregiver's wellbeing; subjective wellbeing; long-term care subsidies; Scotland; caregiving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 pages
Date: 2022-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-eur, nep-hap, nep-hea, nep-lma and nep-ltv
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: American Journal of Health Economics , 2023, 9 (4), 487–522

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Related works:
Journal Article: Caring For Carers? The Effect of Public Subsidies on the Well-Being of Unpaid Carers (2023)
Working Paper: Caring for Carers? The Effect of Public Subsidies on the Wellbeing of Unpaid Carers (2022)
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