An economic appraisal of the tanglibe and intangible net costs of care dependency for care-recipients and their informal caregivers

The project used the life satisfaction valuation method to estimate the total net cost of informal care from the perspective of both elderly caregivers and recipients. This represented a fairly novel application of a methodological approach well established in fields like environmental economics. Resulting estimates provided the first comprehensive costing of informally provided long term care for a number of European countries (as covered by the SHARE survey).

Exploiting the cross-country, panel setup of the SHARE data, the project also investigated the impact of individual factors as well as institutional context, on the cost of care. The results shed light on the scope and nature of the problem, raising awareness and hopefully providing guidance to individuals’ contingency planning, and policy efforts to provide support to private carers. The comparative use of rescaled vignette answers brought further understanding of the methodological approach employed.

Programme dates: July 2011 – August 2014

Funder: Jubiläumsfonds - Österreichischen Nationalbank

Programme lead:Prof. Dr. Ulrike Schneider