Journal of health economics
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The recent growth of the home care sector combined with societal and demographic changes have given rise to concerns about the adequacy of the supply of family and friend caregivers. Potential caregivers face competing time pressures that pull them in the direction of the labour market on one hand, and towards unpaid caregiving duties on the other. ⋯ Results suggest that caregivers are heterogeneous in both their caregiving inputs and associated labour market responses, thereby underscoring the importance of controlling for caregiving intensity when measuring labour supply. The negative influence of primary caregiving on labour supply appears to be at the level of labour force participation, rather than on hours of work or wages.
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This paper examines the impact of coverage on demand for health insurance in the Medicare Advantage (MA) insurance market. Estimating the effects of coverage on demand poses a challenge for researchers who must consider both the hundreds of benefits that affect out-of-pocket costs (OOPC) to consumers, but also the endogeneity of coverage. These problems are addressed in a discrete choice demand model by employing a unique measure of OOPC that considers a consumer's expected payments for a fixed bundle of health services and applying instrumental variable techniques to address potential endogeneity bias. The results of the demand model show that OOPC have a significant effect on consumer surplus and that not instrumenting for OOPC results in a significant underestimate of the value of coverage.