Health care and family support for the elderly in aging developing countries: An international review and a case study of health care allocation in rural Bangladesh

In this dissertation I evaluate the family support for the elderly in the aging developing countries. I argue that well-being of the elderly cannot be ensured by the family alone for two reasons: the burden will increase in the future and elderly are not necessarily taken of well today.; Central to this thesis is an analysis and review of one of the important determinants of the well-being of the elderly---how household resources for health care are allocated among its members. I use data from rural Bangladesh to examine the guiding principles of intra-household allocation of resources for health care for the elderly. The main findings of the study are that although households allocate resources according to the needs of the members, the elderly are in a disadvantaged situation because households also allocate resources in proportion to a member's economic contribution and education. Many studies, including this one, show that both the economic contribution and education of the elderly are low.; I also demonstrate that, for the purpose of studying the role of economic contribution in household resource allocation, estimating economic contribution only from reported and visible income is highly problematic. I developed a measure that, instead, includes all economic activity and which proved to have much greater predictive power than reported income in a society where many people, especially women and the elderly, work only within family enterprises and are not remunerated formally. My empirical study clearly shows that households perceive both visible and invisible income and income from formal and informal sectors as a person's economic contribution.; One of the most important findings of this study is that it confirms the notion that households discriminate against women, and in part because of their low economic contribution. However, households do recognize the economic contribution of women and allocate more resources for health care to those who contribute more compared to those who contribute less.