Discussion about

“The role of paid home care in elderly living

arrangements decisions”

by Matteo Lippi Bruno and Cristina Ugolini

Susanne Steffes (ZEW)

European Conference on Long-Term Care 21./22. October 2005

2

Issue of the paper

Determinants of family decisions regarding living arrangements of disabled elderly in Italy

Familiy choice as a two-stage process:

residential care vs. home care

informal care vs. formal care

Using information on the health condition of the disabled person

3

General comments

Detailed overview of theoretical and empirical literature

No information about the italian welfare system concerning long-term care

Descriptive statistics of dependent variables and covariates

4

Data set

Sample of 279 families with at least one dependent relative

What about families

→ whose disabled relative does neither live in the household nor in an institution?

→ with informal and formal care?

5

Covariates

Level of disability instead of aggregation:

Low [cooking, shopping, telephone]

Middle [bathing, dressing]

High [out of bed, toilet, walking, eating]

Family background

→ woman in the household, employment status of woman

6

Results

„Length of disability“ sign. negative at first stage, not significant at second stage

No gender-effects of elderly person

→ covered by „lived alone before disability“?

Unobserved heterogeneity?

t

Low level of disability

High level of disablitiy

Observation date

Home care Nursing home