1. Discussion about “The role of paid home care in elderly living arrangements decisions” by Matteo Lippi Bruno and Cristina Ugolini Susanne Steffes (ZEW) European Conference on Long-Term Care 21./22. October 2005

2. 2 Issue of the paper  Determinants of family decisions regarding living arrangements of disabled elderly in Italy  Familiy choice as a two-stage process:  residential care vs. home care  informal care vs. formal care  Using information on the health condition of the disabled person

3. 3 General comments  Detailed overview of theoretical and empirical literature  No information about the italian welfare system concerning long-term care  Descriptive statistics of dependent variables and covariates

4. 4 Data set  Sample of 279 families with at least one dependent relative  What about families →whose disabled relative does neither live in the household nor in an institution? →with informal and formal care?

5. 5 Covariates  Level of disability instead of aggregation: Low  [cooking, shopping, telephone] Middle  [bathing, dressing] High  [out of bed, toilet, walking, eating]  Family background →woman in the household, employment status of woman

6. 6 Results  „Length of disability“ sign. negative at first stage, not significant at second stage  No gender-effects of elderly person →covered by „lived alone before disability“?  Unobserved heterogeneity? t Low level of disability High level of disablitiy Observation date Home care Nursing home