title: Unpaid caregiving and paid work over life-courses: Different pathways, diverging outcomes.
abstract: We investigate the extent to which people's earlier circumstances and experiences shape subsequent life-courses. We do this using UK longitudinal data to provide a dynamic analysis of employment and caregiving histories for 4339 people over 15-20 years between 1991 and 2010. We analyse these histories as sequences using optimal matching and cluster analysis to identify five distinct employment-caregiving pathways. Regression analysis shows that prior to embarking on these pathways, people are already differentiated by life-stage, gender and attitudes towards family and gender roles. Difference-in-differences estimation shows that some initial differences in income, subjective health and wellbeing widen over time, while others narrow. In particular, those following the most caregiving-intensive pathways not only end up poorer but also experience a relative decline in subjective health and wellbeing. These results confirm that earlier circumstances exert a strong influence on later life-courses consistent with pre-determination, persistence and path dependence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Business and Labour Economics, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, UK. Electronic address: f.carmichael@bham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Carmichael
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: Marco G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Ercolani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017028:Caregivers / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: Caregiving; Labour force participation; Life-course; Social attitudes; Unpaid work