Abstract

We study the prevalence of informal caregiving to elderly parents by their mature daughters in Europe and the links between parental health, intense (daily) caregiving, and the employment status of daughters. We group data from SHARE into three country pools (North, Central, and South), which differ in the availability of public formal care services and female labor market attachment. There is a strong North-South gradient in the (positive) effect of parental ill health on the probability of daily caregiving. The loss of employment ascribable to daily informal caregiving seems negligible, except in southern countries. We use a time allocation model to provide a link to an empirical IV-treatment effects framework and to interpret our findings.