Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/174946 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 6823
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Home equity is the primary self-funding mechanism for long term services and supports (LTSS). Using data from the relevant waves of the Health and Retirement Study (1996-2010), we exploit the exogenous variation in the form of wealth shocks resulting from the value of housing assets, to examine the effect of wealth on use of home health, unpaid help and nursing home care by older adults. We find a significant increase in the use of paid home health care and unpaid informal care but no effect on nursing home care access. We conduct a placebo test on individuals who do not own property; their use of LTSS was not affected by the housing wealth changes. The findings suggest that a wealth shock exerts a positive and significant effect on the uptake of home health and some effect on unpaid care but no significant effect on nursing home care.
Subjects: 
long term care
housing equity
housing bubble
informal care
home health care
nursing home care
JEL: 
I18
J14
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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