The impact of informal care burden on the labour market outcomes has been the subject of a number of studies. The literature so far has, however, mostly neglected the post-transition countries. The purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence on various labour market implications of informal care in the three Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In particular, we examine the extensive and intensive margins of work, wage effects, job seeking behaviour and utilization of unemployment benefits. We apply instrumental variable approach to address the observed endogeneity of informal care. The obtained results support the existence of a significant deterrent effect of caregiving on both extensive and intensive margins of work among males and females in all the three countries. Wage penalties are found to be stronger in Estonia and Latvia, where reliance on familial care is particularly high. The evidence also suggests that the existing systems induce excessive utilization of unemployment benefits among males in the three Baltic States. The results provided in this study are germane to the development of national labour market and long-term care policies.

非正规护理负担对劳动力市场成果的影响已成为许多研究的主题。但是，迄今为止的文献大多忽略了过渡后国家。本研究的目的是为三个波罗的海国家（爱沙尼亚，拉脱维亚和立陶宛）的非正式护理对劳动力市场的各种影响提供经验证据。特别是，我们研究了广泛而密集的工作边际，工资效应，求职行为和失业救济金的利用。我们应用工具变量方法来解决观察到的非正式护理的内生性。所获得的结果表明，在所有三个国家中，照料对男性和女性的广泛和密集的工作范围都具有显着的威慑作用。在爱沙尼亚和拉脱维亚，对工资的处罚更为严格，这些国家对家庭照料的依赖特别高。证据还表明，现有制度导致波罗的海三个州的男性过度利用失业救济金。这项研究提供的结果与国家劳动力市场的发展和长期护理政策密切相关。