Older people’s decisions of the community care: a welfare pluralism perspective

Abstract The complex interactions among multiple service providers pose challenges to the delivery of community care for older people. Through the lens of the welfare pluralism theory, this study provides the first understanding of older people’s decisions regarding informal/community care under complex interactions among the government, enterprises, communities, and families. Based on a survey of older people in 2883 corresponding families and 184 communities in China, we utilize a logit regression to empirically examine the factors that influence older people’s care decisions, as identified by an equilibrium model. We find that government subsidies and local wage levels effectively promote older people’s decisions to utilize community care. We highlight the importance of governments’ direct care provisions in promoting aging in place and efforts to mitigate regional inequalities for older people.