Privately Paid Care for Older People in Italy: Testing the Equivalence between Macroregions

The rise of a large market for elderly care mainly based on migrant female labour represents a substantial transformation in the Italian elderly care system from being family-based to a mix of family- and market-based solutions. Given the internal differentiation of Italy's policy framework, socioeconomic structure and institutional features, the article addresses the question of whether this is a sub-national or national phenomenon. After discussing the factors related to the rise of market care in the Italian we turn to the factors that might enhance a national or a sub-national character of the phenomenon. This theoretical discussion leads us to the hypothesis the market shift observed in Italy in recent years is mainly driven by national-based factors and that sub-national variations are unlikely to emerge. An equivalence-test applied to data from a survey conducted on a nationally representative sample supports the hypothesis of the national character of the phenomenon. This approach and the result obtained lead not only to better understanding of the factors playing a role in the development of the care market but also to theoretical developments concerning the emergence of sub-national care and welfare systems. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.