Volume 8 - Article 10 | Pages 279–304  

Is nursing home demand affected by the decline in age difference between spouses?

By Darius N. Lakdawalla, Robert Schoeni

Abstract

We investigate whether declines in the age difference between spouses has influenced widowhood and nursing home demand. We first use life-table methods to simulate the impact of the declining age gap on the risk of widowhood. We then use the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey and the Census Public Use Microdata Samples to estimate the impact of widowhood, and other characteristics, on the probability of nursing home entrance. These help us estimate the impact of the declining age gap on nursing home use.
We estimate that the decline in the difference in ages between spouses that took place between the birth cohorts of 1900 and 1955 may raise women's annual nursing home expenditures by about $1.4 billion, but lower men's expenditures by about $600 million.

Author’s Affiliation

• Darius N. Lakdawalla - RAND Corporation, United States of America EMAIL
• Robert Schoeni - University of Michigan, United States of America EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

National estimates of kinship size and composition among adults with activity limitations in the United States
Volume 45 - Article 36

Proximity to mother over the life course in the United States: Overall patterns and racial differences
Volume 45 - Article 23

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