Full Citation

Title: The Effects of the Decline in the Spousal Age Gap on the Demand for Long-Term Care

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2001

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: Prior research has demonstrated that people who do not have a living spouse are much more likely to enter a nursing home. An important factor determining whether an elderly person has a living spouse is the difference in ages between the spouses. For two wives of the same age, the wife with the older husband will be less likely to have a living spouse during her old age, when she might become ill and require care. This has important consequences for trends in nursing home care, because the age gap between spouses has declined by almost two years across the birth cohorts of 1900 and 1955. We find that this trend will end up reducing womens annual expenditures on nursing home care by nearly $1.4 billion, but raising men's annual expenditures by about $600 million.

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Lakdawalla, Darius; Schoenl, Robert F.

Publisher: University of Michigan

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Family and Marriage

Countries: