Is the welfare state in need of caregiving? Labor supply effects for informal caregivers in Sweden

Abstract: This paper estimates labor supply effects for informal caregivers in Sweden using four waves of the SHARE data panel. To give daily or weekly care to a parent, step parent or parent in law is found to be more common among women than among men and is associated with lower employment probability for daily caregivers although the causal direction of the relationship is unclear. No negative effect of caregiving is found on working hours. Further, no support is found for the hypothesis that reduced availability of public eldercare in Sweden has caused labor market consequences for caregivers to become more severe over time. The results from this paper raise the question if the substitution of public eldercare with informal care in Sweden has caused caregivers to carry the double load of both market work and caring responsibilities and which consequences this will have for gender inequality in the long run.