A double sample selection model for unmet needs, formal care and informal caregiving hours of dependent people in Spain

Abstract

This paper analyses the effect of unmet formal care needs on informal caregiving hours in Spain using the two waves of the Informal Support Survey (1994, 2004). Testing for double sample selection from formal care receipt and the emergence of unmet needs provides evidence that the omission of either one of these two variables would cause an underestimation of the number of informal caregiving hours. After controlling for these two factors the number of caregiving hours increases with the degree of dependency and in the case of unmet needs. This growth is even greater when some formal care is received, thus refuting the substitution model. For the same combination of formal care and unmet needs, informal caregiving hours increased between 1994 and 2004. Finally, in the model for 2004, the selection term associated with the unmet needs equation is larger than that of the formal care equation, suggesting the existence of inefficiencies in the formal care allocation process.