Impact of remaining expenses on the volume of home help hours used by APA recipients.

Summary In France, since 2001, home care for disabled elderly can be partially subsidized by a public allowance (allocation personnalisée d'autonomie - APA). For eligible elderly people, the amount to be paid for one hour of formal home care depends on their income, according to a national rule, but also on the rate charged by the chosen provider, and the type of provider, according to parameters fixed by local authorities. This specific institutional frame allows us to estimate the price- and income elasticity of the demand for formal home care by disabled elderly, using administrative data, collected in a local district in October 2010, on 11 040 APA beneficiaries and 13 providers. Our estimation results show that, in this district and for regulated long-term care providers, the price-elasticity of demand is slightly negative. An increase of the price charged by the provider by 10% induces a reduction of the number of care hours by 5.5%.