Volunteer Work, Informal Help, and Care among the 50+ in Europe: Further Evidence for ‘Linked’ Productive Activities at Older Ages

Karsten Hank () and Stephanie Stuck ()
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Stephanie Stuck: Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA), Postal: Amalienstr. 33, D-80799 Munich

No 7142, MEA discussion paper series from Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy

Abstract: Taking a cross-national perspective, we investigate linkages between volunteer work, informal help, and care among Europeans aged 50 or older. Based on 27,305 personal interviews from the 2004 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, we estimate univariate and multivariate probit models, which allow us to analyze the interrelationship between different productive activities. There is substantial variation in the participation in volunteering, helping, and caring between countries and regions. Independent of the general level of activity in a country, we find evidence for a complementary and interdependent relationship between all three activities. Our findings not only suggest an important role of societal opportunity structures in elders' productive engagement, but also support notions of the existence of a general motivation for engagement in productive activities.

Date: 2007-07-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age and nep-soc
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