Coordination, Public Goods
The Elder Care Decision
The Elder Care Decision is a Coordination and Public Goods scenario. The core lesson: Unequal caregiving in families is a public goods problem, the person who cares most bears the most cost. Your parent is 78, increasingly frail, and insists on living at home. You have two siblings. DecisionPlay maps the players, payoffs, and equilibrium dynamics that shape how this situation typically resolves.
The situation
Your parent is 78, increasingly frail, and insists on living at home. You have two siblings. One lives nearby. One lives across the country. The work of coordinating care has, by default, fallen almost entirely to you and the nearby sibling. The distant sibling visits twice a year.
Background
Elder care is a family coordination problem with classic public goods dynamics: the care of a parent benefits the whole family (in terms of wellbeing and, often, inheritance), but the costs fall disproportionately on whoever is geographically and emotionally closest. Research on family caregiving shows that the primary caregiver, almost always the geographically closest child, experiences significantly higher rates of depression, income loss, and career disruption than non-caregiving siblings.
What this reveals
Care asymmetry
In families, the person who cares most bears the most cost, in time, income, career, and health. This is not just a personal dynamic; it's a public goods problem where the benefits (parent wellbeing) are shared and the costs are concentrated.
How to counter it: Make the informal arrangement explicit and renegotiate it deliberately. The arrangement you have is not natural, it's a default that happened to benefit the people who weren't there.
A question to sit with
In your family, or in your workplace team, who is doing more than their share of the unglamorous, load-bearing work? Do they know you see it?
Frequently asked questions
- What game theory concept does The Elder Care Decision illustrate?
- The Elder Care Decision illustrates Coordination, Public Goods. Unequal caregiving in families is a public goods problem, the person who cares most bears the most cost.
- What is the situation in The Elder Care Decision?
- Your parent is 78, increasingly frail, and insists on living at home. You have two siblings. One lives nearby.
- What does The Elder Care Decision reveal about how people decide?
- Care asymmetry. In families, the person who cares most bears the most cost, in time, income, career, and health. This is not just a personal dynamic; it's a public goods problem where the benefits (parent wellbeing) are shared and the costs are concentrated.
- How do you avoid the trap in The Elder Care Decision?
- Make the informal arrangement explicit and renegotiate it deliberately. The arrangement you have is not natural, it's a default that happened to benefit the people who weren't there.
- What is the research behind The Elder Care Decision?
- Elder care is a family coordination problem with classic public goods dynamics: the care of a parent benefits the whole family (in terms of wellbeing and, often, inheritance), but the costs fall disproportionately on whoever is geographically and emotionally closest. Research on family caregiving shows that the primary caregiver, almost always the geographically closest child, experiences significantly higher rates of depression, income loss, and career disruption than non-caregiving siblings.
- How long does The Elder Care Decision take to play?
- About 12 min, at advanced difficulty, across 4 decision points. It runs in your browser with no account and no sign-in.
Keep exploring
More Personal Decisions scenarios, or browse all scenarios. New to this? Start with how DecisionPlay works or the game theory glossary.
Topics: elder-care, family, coordination, public-goods