Who will care? Employment participation and willingness to supply informal care

Abstract

The impact of informal care responsibilities on the willingness and ability of caregivers to undertake paid employment has been the subject of a number of studies. In contrast, the effect of employment status on willingness to undertake informal care has been less well explored. This paper concentrates on this less-studied direction of causality using the data provided by 15 waves of the British Household Panel Survey. We find that employment participation and earnings both impact negatively on willingness to supply informal care. This evidence has implications for health and social care policy since informal care has been shown to be a significant substitute for formal long-term care.