Employment and Health of the Sandwich Generation in Russia: Empirical Analysis

Abstract

The work examines the influence of the sandwich syndrome on the employment and health of individuals in Russia. We consider a person to experience sandwich syndrome if they provide informal care for two generations. To evaluate this effect, we utilized the matching procedure. The empirical basis of the study is the microdata of nationally representative time-budget survey, conducted by Rosstat in 2019. Our study reveals that in general the sandwich syndrome negatively affects the probability of the individual’s employment, increases the likelihood of their distance job but does not affect their wages. Sandwich syndrome does not impact on the individual self-assessment of health but increases the likelihood of chronic diseases. People with sandwich syndrome are more likely to feel time pressure and have less free time. The magnitude and significance of the sandwich syndrome effect varies depending on the type of control group (not experiencing sandwich syndrome; not caring for anyone; caring only for children; caring for adults only).

Acknowledgements. The article was prepared as part of research on the state assignment of the RANEPA.

The author expresses her appreciation to I.A. Denisova, M.G. Kolosnitsyna as well as to anonymous referees for extremely valuable remarks and comments.