Comparison of Japanese and German Nursing Homes: Implications of Demographic and Policy Differences

Alexander Karmann, Technische Universitat Dresden
Shinya Sugawara , Tokyo University of Science

This research provides a comparative study of Japanese and German nursing homes. Although these two aging countries share similar long-term care policies based on social insurance, descriptive statistics show the existence of a large difference in the outcomes of their nursing home sectors. This research pursues the reason behind these observations, looking at demographic and policy differences between the two countries. To shed light from multiple angles, we conduct empirical analysis using three methods: regression, the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition, and data envelopment analysis using regional data from the past decade. Our empirical results find that different outcomes are driven by both demographic and policy differences. Among the policy elements, our result indicates the existence of moral hazard in Germany due to a generous welfare program.

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 Presented in Session P3. Poster Session Migration, Economics, Environment, Methods, History and Policy