Working Paper Number
513
Publication Date
6-2020
Abstract
This article will estimate the impacts of major public investment in the home health care industries. Investment in the home health care workforce would have important public health benefits, as those individuals who are most vulnerable could stay out of residential care centers. The focus of this article is on the employment and income effects of public investment in home care in a time of surging unemployment. By examining the effects of job stabilization and creation for the home health care workforce, I find that robust public investment in home health care can create millions of jobs, both directly in the home health care industry and through induced economic activity in some of the hardest-hit sectors where low-wage women workers are most concentrated: retail, health care (besides home health care), and food service. As policymakers in the United States consider major public support for a variety of industrial sectors, and the Federal Reserve considers virtually unlimited support for the economy, it is crucial to push for robust investment in home health care.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/28043373
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.