The Economics of Informal Care

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Abstract
This article analyzes the labor market-related effects of informal care provision in the National Hospice Study on the individual providing this care. The results indicate that voluntary providers of patient care who were employed at the onset of the care-giving episode experienced considerable loss of earnings. These losses were partly caused by the fact that over one-fourth of initially employed caregivers left the labor force because of care obligations. This exit probability increased with the caregiver's age and female gender, and decreased with the caregiver's reported annual family income. Of the caregivers who continued in paid employment during the informal care episode, 60% reported losses of income because of care-related increased absenteeism from work. These two types of income loss are quantified using an indirect valuation method. This quantification indicates that some of the cost savings which have been attributed to the home-centered hospice modality in the National Hospice Study may have resulted from the shifting of costs from the formal health care sector to the informal care sector.

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