%0 Report %A Viitanen, Tarja %T Informal and Formal Care in Europe %D 2007 %8 2007 Feb %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) %C Bonn %7 IZA Discussion Paper %N 2648 %U https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp2648 %X Government expenditure on formal residential care and home-help services for the elderly significantly reduces 45-59 year old women’s informal care-giving affecting both the extensive and the intensive margin. Allowing for country fixed-effects and country-specific trends and correcting for attrition, the estimates – based on the European Community Household Panel – imply that a 1000 Euro increase in the government expenditure on formal residential care and home-help services for the elderly decreases the probability of informal care-giving outside of the caregiver’s household by 6 percentage points. Formal care substitutes for informal care that is undertaken outside of the carer’s own household, but does not substitute for intergenerational household formation. A simulation exercise shows that an increase in government formal care expenditure is a cost-effective way of increasing the labour force participation rates. %K informal care %K formal care %K ECHP %K attrition bias