The Effects of Incidence of Care Needs in Households on Employment, Subjective Health, and Life Satisfaction among Middle-aged Family Members

In this study, based on longitudinal data, we investigate whether Japanese middle-aged men and women become less likely to have a job and whether their sense of well-being decreases when they have a family member who needs care. We find a consistent negative impact of having a family member who needs care on employment, but no impact on subjective health and life satisfaction. Further, the differences-in-differences (DID) estimation, based on both unmatched and matched data, shows that the Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) introduced in 2000 did not mitigate the adverse impact on the probability of being employed.