The effect of the introduction of the Japanese long-term care insurance on the time allocation decisions of family caregivers

This paper examines the effect of the introduction of the Japanese public long-term care insurance (LTCI) in 2000 on the time allocation decisions of family caregivers. A sample is drawn from the waves of 1996, 2001, and 2006 of the Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities. I estimate the relationship between the LTCI introduction and the time allocation decisions of family caregivers on caregiving, sleep, home production, and leisure as well as market work while controlling for the heterogeneity across prefectures that has existed before the LTCI introduction. I find that the effects of the LTCI introduction on the time allocation decisions of family caregivers depend on the gender of caregivers. The introduction of the LTCI has little impact on the time allocation decisions of male caregivers. On the other hand, among female caregivers, time spent on caregiving decreases in 2001 and 2006 while time spent on leisure increases only in 2001.departmental bulletin pape