Labour market participation

Objectives: This article investigates how different types of informal caregiving - upward, lateral and downward - impact men's and women's decisions to retire or to reduce their working hours, and how welfare policy characteristics moderate the linkage between informal care provision and employment participation. Methods: The analyses are based on six waves from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE).

The need to provide care for older people can put a strain on their adult children, potentially interfering with their work attendance. We tested the hypothesis that public care for older people (nursing homes or home care services) would moderate the association between having an older parent in need of care and reduced work attendance among the adult children. The analysis used data from a survey of Norwegian employees aged 45–65 (N = 529). Institutional care for older people in need of care (i.e.