IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ven/wpaper/202110.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Care provision at the time of the Covid-19: who suffers most?

Author

Listed:
  • Elena Bassoli

    (Department of Economics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice)

  • Agar Brugiavini

    (Department of Economics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice; Institute For Fiscal Studies)

  • Irene Ferrari

    (Department of Economics, Ca' Foscari University of Venice; Netspar)

Abstract

This paper focuses on the changes in care provision at the time of the COVID-19 outbreak by exploiting variation in lockdown policies across Europe. We use the SHARE-COVID-19 survey, which involves about 50000 respondents of age 50 and over in 26 countries, to investigate how the stringency of the policy measures have affected care provision. Our study is based on the linkage of the SHARE-COVID-19 data with an individual specific "stringency index" which measures the intensity of the restriction policies and the degree of individual's exposure. We find that older individuals, low-income individuals and people affected by limitations in everyday life faced a higher probability of receiving help because of the lockdown policies. Women and people in the age group 50-65 were more likely to provide help/care, but we also uncover a complex interaction with the labour market condition of caregivers. Lockdown policies hit hard individuals who were already receiving care as they experienced a form of rationing, both due to higher financial costs and travelling restrictions. Since these individuals are already among the most fragile in society, our evidence raises concern and calls for a re-design of the welfare system.

Suggested Citation

  • Elena Bassoli & Agar Brugiavini & Irene Ferrari, 2021. "Care provision at the time of the Covid-19: who suffers most?," Working Papers 2021:10, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    • Handle: RePEc:ven:wpaper:2021:10
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.unive.it/pag/fileadmin/user_upload/dipartimenti/economia/doc/Pubblicazioni_scientifiche/working_papers/2021/WP_DSE_bassoli_brugiavini_ferrari_10_21.pdf
    File Function: First version, anno
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Massimiliano Bratti & Tommaso Frattini & Francesco Scervini, 2018. "Grandparental availability for child care and maternal labor force participation: pension reform evidence from Italy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 1239-1277, October.
    2. Ainoa Aparicio Fenoll, 2020. "The uneven impact of women's retirement on their daughters' employment," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 795-821, September.
    3. Evamdrou, Maria & Falkingham, Jane & Qin, Min & Vlachantoni, Athina, 2020. "Older and ‘staying at home’ during lockdown: informal care receipt during the COVID-19 pandemic amongst people aged 70 and over in the UK," SocArXiv 962dy, Center for Open Science.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elena Bassoli & Agar Brugiavini, 2023. "Unequal care provision: evidence from the Share-Corona Survey," Working Papers 2023:05, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elena Bassoli & Agar Brugiavini, 2023. "Unequal care provision: evidence from the Share-Corona Survey," Working Papers 2023:05, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    2. Edoardo Frattola, 2023. "Parental retirement and fertility decisions across family policy regimes," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1417, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    3. Cristiano Antonelli, 2017. "The Engines of the Creative Response: Reactivity and Knowledge Governance," Economía: teoría y práctica, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México, vol. 47(2), pages 9-30, Julio-Dic.
    4. Karademir, Sencer & Laliberté, Jean-William & Staubli, Stefan, 2023. "The Multigenerational Impact of Children and Childcare Policies," IZA Discussion Papers 15894, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Wolfgang Frimmel & Martin Halla & Bernhard Schmidpeter & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2022. "Grandmothers’ Labor Supply," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(5), pages 1645-1689.
    6. Gørtz, Mette & Sander, Sarah & Sevilla, Almudena, 2023. "Does the Child Penalty Strike Twice, and If So Why?," IZA Discussion Papers 16557, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Peter Eibich & Xianhua Zai, 2024. "Are the grandparents alright? The health consequences of grandparental childcare provision," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(4), pages 1-32, December.
    8. Chiara Ardito, 2017. "Rising pension age in Italy: Employment response and Program substitution," LABORatorio R. Revelli Working Papers Series 155, LABORatorio R. Revelli, Centre for Employment Studies.
    9. Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina & Borra, Cristina, 2021. "The role of non-contributory pensions on internal mobility in Spain," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    10. Yu, Haiyue & Cao, Jin & Kang, Shulong, 2021. "Who cares: Deciphering China's female employment paradox," BOFIT Discussion Papers 7/2021, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    11. Barschkett, Mara & Spieß, C. Katharina & Ziege, Elena, 2021. "Does Grandparenting Pay off for the Next Generations? Intergenerational Effects of Grandparental Care," IZA Discussion Papers 14795, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Barschkett, Mara & Spieß, C. Katharina & Ziege, Elena, 2021. "Intergenerational Effects of Grandparental Care on Children and Parents," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242397, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    13. Eiji Yamamura & Yoshiro Tsustsui, 2021. "The impact of closing schools on working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence using panel data from Japan," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 41-60, March.
    14. Talamas Marcos, Miguel Ángel, 2023. "Grandmothers and the gender gap in the Mexican labor market," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    15. Arpino, Bruno & Pasqualini, Marta & Bordone, Valeria & Solé-Auró, Aïda, 2020. "Indirect consequences of COVID-19 on people’s lives. Findings from an on-line survey in France, Italy and Spain," SocArXiv 4sfv9, Center for Open Science.
    16. Ueno, Yuko & 上野, 有子 & Usui, Emiko & 臼井, 恵美子, 2021. "The Effects of Providing Childcare on Grandmothers’ Employment and Mental Health in Japan, 日本で孫の育児が祖母の就業とメンタルヘルスに及ぼす影響," CIS Discussion paper series 691, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    17. Osuna Victoria, 2021. "Subsidising Formal Childcare Versus Grandmothers' Time: Which Policy is More Effective?," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 15(1), pages 85-111, January.
    18. Backhaus, Andreas & Barslund, Mikkel, 2021. "The effect of grandchildren on grandparental labor supply: Evidence from Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    19. Ainoa Aparicio Fenoll, 2020. "The uneven impact of women's retirement on their daughters' employment," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 795-821, September.
    20. Gema Zamarro, 2020. "Family labor participation and child care decisions: the role of grannies," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 287-312, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Care provision; caregiving; caregiver; COVID-19; SHARE data; SHARE-COVID-19 questionnaire; lockdown policies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ven:wpaper:2021:10. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Geraldine Ludbrook (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dsvenit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.