Do public caregiving subsidies and supports affect the provision of care and transfers?

Costa-Font, Joan ORCID: 0000-0001-7174-7919, Jimenez-Martin, Sergi and Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina (2022) Do public caregiving subsidies and supports affect the provision of care and transfers? Journal of Health Economics, 84. ISSN 0167-6296

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Abstract

We study whether caregiving and intergenerational transfer decisions are sensitive to changes in economic incentives following the inception of a new unconditional and universal system of allowances and supports, after the introduction of the 2006 Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for Dependent Persons Act (SAAD in Spanish), and the ensuing effects of its austerity cuts after 2012. We find that whilst the introduction of a caregiving allowance (of a maximum value of €530 in 2011) increased the supply of informal caregiving by 20-22 percentual points (pp), the inception of a companion system of publicly subsidised homecare supports did not modify the supply of care. Consistent with an exchange motive for intergenerational transfers, we estimate an average 17 pp (8.2-8.7pp) increase (decrease) in downstream (upstream) transfers among those receiving caregiving allowances. Our estimates resulting from the reduction in the allowances and supports after the austerity cuts in 2012 are consistent with our main estimates, and suggest stronguer effects among lower-income families.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-h...
Additional Information:	© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
Divisions:	Health Policy
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
JEL classification:	G - Financial Economics > G2 - Financial Institutions and Services > G22 - Insurance; Insurance Companies I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I18 - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health D - Microeconomics > D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics > D14 - Personal Finance
Date Deposited:	24 May 2022 08:39
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 03:01
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/115185

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