Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between eldercare and employee subjective wellbeing. Employing a dynamic analysis of national panel data over ten waves in Australia, the study examines the intertemporal effects of lagged and current eldercare on subjective wellbeing, including general life and job satisfaction, satisfaction with free time, employment opportunities, work-life balance, job security, pay, and work hours. When the effects are statistically significant, eldercare provision tends to have a positive impact on employees’ subjective wellbeing, while eldercare intensity, as measured by the number of caring hours, has a negative impact. Our results also suggest the effects are heterogeneous across genders, part-time and full-time workers, and blue-collar and white-collar occupations.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on earlier versions of the paper. Zhiming Cheng thanks the support from the Scientia Fellowship at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to DSS, the Melbourne Institute or UNSW.
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Cheng, Z., Jepsen, D.M. & Wang, B.Z. A Dynamic Analysis of Informal Elder Caregiving and Employee Wellbeing. J Bus Psychol 35, 85–98 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-018-9603-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-018-9603-4