绘制亚洲无酬工作经济图

MAPPING THE UNPAID CAREWORK ECONOMY IN ASIA Gretchen Donehower ADB ECONOMICSWORKING PAPER SERIES ADB Economics Working Paper Series Mapping the Unpaid Care Work Economy in Asia Gretchen DonehowerNo. 777 | April 2025 Gretchen Donehower (gstockma@berkeley.edu) isan academic specialist at the University of California,Berkeley. TheADB Economics Working Paper Seriespresents research in progress to elicit commentsand encourage debate on development issuesin Asia and the Pacific. The views expressedare those of the authors and do not necessarilyreflect the views and policies of ADB orits Board of Governors or the governmentsthey represent. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license (CC BY 3.0 IGO) © 2025 Asian Development Bank6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City, 1550 Metro Manila, PhilippinesTel +63 2 8632 4444; Fax +63 2 8636 2444www.adb.org Some rights reserved. Published in 2025. ISSN 2313-6537 (print), 2313-6545 (PDF)Publication Stock No. WPS250146-2DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22617/WPS250146-2 The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policiesof the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or its Board of Governors or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility for anyconsequence of their use. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers does not imply that theyare endorsed or recommended by ADB in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. By making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area in this document, ADB does notintend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. This publication is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license (CC BY 3.0 IGO)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/. By using the content of this publication, you agree to be boundby the terms of this license. For attribution, translations, adaptations, and permissions, please read the provisionsand terms of use at https://www.adb.org/terms-use#openaccess. This CC license does not apply to non-ADB copyright materials in this publication. If the material is attributedto another source, please contact the copyright owner or publisher of that source for permission to reproduce it.ADB cannot be held liable for any claims that arise as a result of your use of the material. Please contact pubsmarketing@adb.org if you have questions or comments with respect to content, or if you wishto obtain copyright permission for your intended use that does not fall within these terms, or for permission to usethe ADB logo. Corrigenda to ADB publications may be found at http://www.adb.org/publications/corrigenda. ABSTRACT Aging populations in Asia are worried that they are facing a “care crisis,” with many older peoplein need of care having no one to care for them. However, we do not have a clear picture of currentcare patterns: How much care is currently being consumed? Who is providing that care? Arewomen and men serving equally as paid or unpaid caregivers? We explore the methods foranswering some of these basic empirical questions about unpaid care work using the NationalTime Transfer Accounts, which show that older people are far from being a major source of unpaidcare demand, but are making net transfers of time to other age groups well into their elder years.In our group of Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Thailand,Türkiye, and Viet Nam), these time transfers come on average from women. Keywords:eldercare, childcare, unpaid care work, time use, transfers I.INTRODUCTION Care sustains our societies and economies. It brings us into the world at birth, when we would behelpless without the care of family, community, and possibly paid caregivers. It is also at this stagethat the creation of our human capital begins. As we grow up, care keeps households running,puts food on the table, and makes sure that we have clean clothes for work and school. Finally,care supports us in old age, as many of us experience failing health and reduced capacities,leaving us vulnerable and unable to sustain ourselves independently. In a world where fertilityand mortality rates are changing, and over time, changing the shares of young and old people ina population, it is increasingly important to understand the care economy if we want to maintainstandards of living and the overall well-being of the population. Asia and the Pacific is aging rapidly, making it an important place to study the care economy anddevelop tools to predict its future. As mentioned earlier, old age is often accompanied bydeteriorating health, albeit with great heterogeneity at the individual level, but ultimately most ofus will need the care and help of others as we age, certainly more so than in our peak workingyears. Some of this care takes the form of health care p