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Unpaid Care for Elderly Parents and Labor Supply Among Older Working-Age Men and Women Across Europe

Labbas, Elisa LU orcid and Stanfors, Maria LU (2022) In Lund Papers in Economic Demography
Abstract
With population aging, more adults across Europe face competing demands of working for pay and caring for elderly family members. Associated tradeoffs are expected to be negative,gendered and vary across contexts with different levels of gender equality, public support for eldercare, and work-family balance. Using SHARE data from 2004 to 2020, we investigated how unpaid caregiving to independently living parents relates to labor supply among mature working-age (50–64) men and women across Europe. We find limited tradeoffs between unpaid caregiving and labor supply, even where public support for eldercare is low. Caregiving associates with men’s and women’s employment and full-time work in similar ways. Gender differences nevertheless exist... (More)
With population aging, more adults across Europe face competing demands of working for pay and caring for elderly family members. Associated tradeoffs are expected to be negative,gendered and vary across contexts with different levels of gender equality, public support for eldercare, and work-family balance. Using SHARE data from 2004 to 2020, we investigated how unpaid caregiving to independently living parents relates to labor supply among mature working-age (50–64) men and women across Europe. We find limited tradeoffs between unpaid caregiving and labor supply, even where public support for eldercare is low. Caregiving associates with men’s and women’s employment and full-time work in similar ways. Gender differences nevertheless exist in both paid work and caregiving across Europe, especially in Continental and Southern Europe. These differences are established before midlife and build up across the life course and should be addressed when designing policies for longer working lives in Europe.
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Unpaid caregiving, labor supply, gender, Europe, SHARE, work-family balance
in
Lund Papers in Economic Demography
issue
2022:5
publisher
Centre for Economic Demography
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
03134451-4551-4e88-8791-0603df0e0589
alternative location
https://www.ed.lu.se/media/ed/papers/working_papers/LPED%202022%205.pdf
date added to LUP
2023-11-28 20:30:14
date last changed
2024-02-07 16:16:38
@misc{03134451-4551-4e88-8791-0603df0e0589,
  abstract     = {{With population aging, more adults across Europe face competing demands of working for pay and caring for elderly family members. Associated tradeoffs are expected to be negative,gendered and vary across contexts with different levels of gender equality, public support for eldercare, and work-family balance. Using SHARE data from 2004 to 2020, we investigated how unpaid caregiving to independently living parents relates to labor supply among mature working-age (50–64) men and women across Europe. We find limited tradeoffs between unpaid caregiving and labor supply, even where public support for eldercare is low. Caregiving associates with men’s and women’s employment and full-time work in similar ways. Gender differences nevertheless exist in both paid work and caregiving across Europe, especially in Continental and Southern Europe. These differences are established before midlife and build up across the life course and should be addressed when designing policies for longer working lives in Europe.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Labbas, Elisa and Stanfors, Maria}},
  keywords     = {{Unpaid caregiving; labor supply; gender; Europe; SHARE; work-family balance}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{2022:5}},
  publisher    = {{Centre for Economic Demography}},
  series       = {{Lund Papers in Economic Demography}},
  title        = {{Unpaid Care for Elderly Parents and Labor Supply Among Older Working-Age Men and Women Across Europe}},
  url          = {{https://www.ed.lu.se/media/ed/papers/working_papers/LPED%202022%205.pdf}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}