Informal caregiving, employment status and work hours of the 50+ population in Europe

Using panel data on the age group 50–70 in 15 European countries, we analyze the effects of providing informal care to parents, parents-in-law, stepparents, and grandparents on employment status and work hours. We account for fixed individual effects and test for endogeneity of caregiving using moments exploiting standard instruments (e.g., parental death) as well as higher-order moment conditions (Lewbel instruments). Specification tests suggest that informal care provision and daily caregiving can be treated as exogenous variables. We find a significant and negative effect of daily caregiving on employment status and work hours. This effect is particularly strong for women. On the other hand, providing care at a weekly (or less than weekly) frequency does not significantly affect paid work. We do not find evidence of heterogeneous effects of caregiving on paid work across European regions.