Is All Caregiving Created Equal? A Comparison of Caregiving to Children and Adults

Abstract

In this paper, we compare patterns of family care provided to children and to adults, and discuss what these patterns suggest about how individuals make decisions over, and ultimately value, such care. We show that patterns of informal adult care do not resemble patterns of informal childcare along three important dimensions: caregiver age, caregiver education, and the response of caregiving to macroeconomic conditions. The finding that childcare and adult care are economically distinct suggest that policies, like paid family leave, that support caregivers should more carefully consider these differences.