Joseph-Simon Goerlach (Bocconi University)

Matching with preferences: Caring who cares for the old

Venue: School of Management and Economics, ESOMAS Department – Corso Unione Sovietica, 218 bis, 10134 Torino TO

Abstract: This paper studies preferences and valuations in matchings between elderly care recipients and private care workers using unique company data which provide information on employing households’ and care workers’ ex-ante preferences, matches, wages and durations. Estimating a matching model identifies valuations for different match attributes from both the employer and worker perspectives, and quantifies the effects of violating agents’ preferences on payoffs and job stability. Merging with longitudinal full register data suggests elderly population shares increase most strongly among municipalities and demographics more prone to prefer European care workers. Workers’ sex, instead, may become less relevant.