Résumé en anglais

This paper focuses on the trade-off between formal care and informal care for disabled elderly people living in the community. We propose a simple microeconomic model which describes the simultaneous decision process between potential informal caregivers and disabled elderly personliving at home. The model predicts a strict substitution between thetwo kinds of care. To test the substitution e ffect and assess its intensity,we estimate a recursive simultaneous equation model linked by a copula function, using data from the French\ Handicap Santé Ménages " survey (2008). In contrast with previous literature, the estimated model allows tosimultaneously identify both potential causality directions. Thanks to thecopula function, strong assumptions about a linear link between the tworesiduals of both equations do not have to be made. Our results con firm that informal and formal home care are globally substitutes. Nevertheless, the predicted increase of formal care following a reduction of one hour of informal care remains very small. Informal care supply is also weaklysensitive to variations of formal care hours: The substitution e ffect ishigh only for individuals receiving much more informal than formal care.