Abstract: Taking into account the increasing relevance of long-term care in the policy agenda, the aim of our analysis is to assess whether the introduction of a new Dependency law, as it can be the case of the 2006 Dependency Act in Spain, affects the demand for formal and informal care. Our results using all the waves of the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) show that for the overall sample, a higher age would increase the risk of receiving formal care. The same applies for being unemployed, disabled, sick, living in a rural area, have children in the household, activity daily limitations, chronic conditions or depression. Similar arguments are obtained for informal care. Moreover, the dummy variable for the first years after the introduction of the Dependency Act is associated with a lower probability of demanding informal care, and it is associated with formal care only in the full model. But when we consider only individuals with some limitation in the Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) the significance of some variables has changed. In case of the demand for formal care, older age, being permanently sick or disabled and living in a rural area is significantly associated with formal care. With respect to informal care, older ages, being female, any level of education, being widowed and household income are significantly associated with the demand for informal care. With respect to the dummy variable for the years after the implementation of the Dependency Act, it is significant in case of formal care.

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