News: Is higher labour force participation a threat to informal care?
Population ageing puts increasing pressure on economies by reducing the share of people of working age. A common policy response is to encourage higher labour force participation, especially among women and older workers. But could this come at the cost of informal caregiving? This digest studies to which extent higher labour force participation may reduce the supply of informal care. Read our most recent policy digest here.
BB-Future Project
Anticipating Europe’s care transformation: BB-Future explores how the rising demand for long-term care will reshape families, labour markets and economic structures. Through data-driven modelling and forward-looking policy design, the project aims to support inclusive and proactive responses to the coming care wave.
Participants:
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Our starting point
In the mid 2030s, the health of the baby boomers will have deteriorated and many in these large cohorts will be in need of formal and/or informal long-term care. This “care wave” will transform two generations: the baby boomers in need of care and their children who may supply care. It will have significant implications for labour supply, especially for women, saving behaviour, and therefore for productivity, economic growth and its inclusiveness.
Our idea
The overarching objective of BB-Future is to understand the size and the implications of the care wave on economic and social outcomes, to appreciate the quality of this second ageing-related transformation and to develop policy recommendations for advance planning on the EU and Memberstate levels.
Our goal
BB-Future will develop policy recommendations in a rigorous three-step approach: Based on projections of five fundamental trends and well-defined policy scenarios, a set of quantitative models will deliver key micro and macroeconomic outcomes which will be compared to derive policy recommendations.
Our results
We provide three types of policy results: Weekly „Policy digests“ that are published every Friday and summarize important policy relevant findings on 1-2 pages, „Policy Briefs“ that summarize policy-relevant scientific results in more detail, and finally „Policy recommendations“.
This project is funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement 101093849 — BB‐Future as part of HORIZON‐CL2‐2022‐TRANSFORMATIONS‐01. We are grateful for the generous support. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the project participants only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
