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Session: Informal Care
Room: Main Hall
Time: Thu 11:45-13:00

Presenter: Shiko Maruyama (University of New South Wales. Economics)

Abstract

Who takes care of an elderly parent? In ageing societies, the importance of informal care has grown steadily. To improve long-term care policies and to secure well-being of both caregivers and caretakers, better understanding of family decision on informal care is vital. The intra-family transfer literature hypothesizes a variety of motives for intra-family transfer and has generally concluded that each family member behaves selfishly, not altruistically. Very few studies have explored how different motives affect provision of informal care by children. Given that coresidence is still a predominant form of family care in Japan, this paper studies the late-life transition into parent-child coresidence in Japan to shed light on the process and determinants of the family decision on informal care.
We use the Nihon University Japanese Longitudinal Study of Aging (NUJLSOA) conducted in years 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2006. Our population consists of elderly Japanese who live independently and have at least one surviving child. The variable of interest is whether a parent starts coresidence with his/her child by the next period. To offer more precise microscopic overview of the family decision on informal care, this study advances the existing literature in three ways. First, the focus on transition to coresidence offers advantages over the most existing living arrangement studies that use cross-sectional data: transition analysis provides clearer inference of causal effects and the exclusion of life-long coresidence allows us to examine factors that initiate coresidence as a form of informal care. Second, we exploit the richness of the NUJLSOA such as detailed information on family structure and parents’ values. Third, we address heterogeneity in Japanese families, by estimating the model for fathers and mothers separately and by estimating a mixture logit model. The mixture model extends the standard logit model to fit with unobserved heterogeneity and helps us to avoid bias due to self-selection that occurs over survey waves.
Our findings are three-fold. We find (1) evidences that support the strategic bequest motive, as the previous literature did, (2) other important factors that trigger parent-child coresidence, and (3) noticeable heterogeneity, especially, gender difference. Concerning the bequest motive in Japan, fathers’ intention to rely on children, gradual health decline, and home ownership are particularly important. Other significant factors include the need for parenting for grandchildren, health shocks and health status, social norms and traditions, and the succession of family culture over generations. We also test free-riding behavior of children, a hypothesis that the decision of multiple-children families differs from that of single-child families due to the public good nature of the elderly parent’s well-being. We find no support for this hypothesis. Comparing mothers and fathers, elderly mothers tend to have smaller bargaining power and live independently if possible. However, whenever they are in serious need of care, filial informal care is provided. Fathers occupy a better position in family decision making than mothers. However, their stringent need for care is less likely to initiate coresidence. Public informal care supports should be developed taking into account these gender differences and motives.

Key Terms

informal care, intergenerational transfer, living arrangements, coresidence, finite mixture logit, health shock

Authors:

Meliyanni Johar (University of Technology, Sydney. CHERE) , Shiko Maruyama (University of New South Wales. Economics) and Sayaka Nakamura (Yokohama City University. Economics)

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