{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T05:06:48Z","timestamp":1784696808145,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":18,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784678400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"\n Background<\/jats:title>\n To promote the development of older adult care services, a government can offer two types of subsidy programs: a consumer subsidy policy and a service subsidy policy. Choosing an appropriate subsidy policy to maximize social welfare is a critical decision for the government.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Methods<\/jats:title>\n We consider an older adult care service supply chain consisting of the government, a service firm, and heterogeneous older adult consumers, who are classified into economy-conscious and quality-conscious segments, and develop a game-theoretic model to analyze the optimal subsidy program.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results<\/jats:title>\n The structure of the optimal subsidy policy depends on the price sensitivity coefficient of economy conscious consumers, the service cost, and the market share of such consumers. As the price sensitivity coefficient increases, the consumer subsidy policy exhibits an increasingly pronounced advantage over the service subsidy policy in enhancing consumer surplus, firm profit, and social welfare. In particular, when the price sensitivity coefficient is high, the consumer subsidy policy always achieves such a tripartite outcome.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n Consumer subsidy policy lowers the financial threshold for accessing older adult care services, thereby promoting health equity among the older population, and this improved affordability does not necessarily come at the expense of service quality. Therefore, governments should adopt the price-sensitivity coefficient of older adults as a core criterion in subsidy design, since it simultaneously guides the economically optimal policy and the instrument most congruent with public health goals.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1890740","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T04:50:27Z","timestamp":1784695827000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Subsidize consumers or service firm? The design of a government subsidy policy for an older adult care service supply chain"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Lei","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Humanities, Southeast University","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chen","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Foreign Languages, Southeast University","place":["Nanjing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1291","DOI":"10.1051\/ro\/2019032","article-title":"Coordination of elderly healthcare service supply chain with information asymmetry: designs of option contracts under different demand distribution statuses","volume":"54","author":"Zhao","year":"2020","journal-title":"RAIRO Operat Res"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1617","DOI":"10.1007\/s10660-020-09425-0","article-title":"Will the community O2O service supply channel benefit the elderly healthcare service supply chain?","volume":"22","author":"Zhao","year":"2020","journal-title":"Electron Commer Res"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"251","DOI":"10.3390\/systems11050251","article-title":"Smart elderly care: an intelligent e-procurement system for elderly supplier selecting","volume":"11","author":"Qin","year":"2023","journal-title":"Systems"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2034","DOI":"10.1109\/TEM.2021.3071587","article-title":"Sustainability on the service capacity in elderly healthcare service supply chains: an application of flexible contracts","volume":"70","author":"Zhao","year":"2023","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Eng Manag"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1155\/2024\/4957463","article-title":"The development strategy of dual-channel supply chain of smart elderly care service from the perspective of time perception","volume":"2024","author":"Zhao","year":"2024","journal-title":"Complexity"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e0320741","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0320741","article-title":"Selection of dual-channel supply chain cooperation mode of older adults care service under the government subsidy strategy","volume":"20","author":"Zhao","year":"2025","journal-title":"PLoS ONE"},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1235","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.2015.2173","article-title":"The impact of demand uncertainty on consumer subsidies for green technology adoption","volume":"62","author":"Cohen","year":"2016","journal-title":"Manage Sci"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1316","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ejor.2023.02.011","article-title":"How much is enough? Government subsidies in supporting green product development","volume":"309","author":"Zolfagharinia","year":"2023","journal-title":"Eur J Operat Res"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"109918","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cie.2024.109918","article-title":"An evolutionary game model of manufacturers and consumers' behavior strategies for green technology and government subsidy in supply chain platform","volume":"189","author":"Guo","year":"2024","journal-title":"Comput Ind Eng"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"32","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.2017.2927","article-title":"An analysis of price vs. revenue protection: government subsidies in the agriculture industry","volume":"65","author":"Alizamir","year":"2019","journal-title":"Manag Sci"},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"6839","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.2020.3831","article-title":"The value and cost of crop minimum support price: farmer and consumer welfare and implementation cost","volume":"67","author":"Chintapalli","year":"2021","journal-title":"Manage Sci"},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"109917","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijpe.2026.109917","article-title":"Green technology operation subsidy vs. investment subsidy in agricultural outsourcing services: the impact of power structures","volume":"293","author":"Shi","year":"2026","journal-title":"Int J Prod Econ"},{"key":"B13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tre.2017.09.010","article-title":"Punishing or subsidizing? Regulation analysis of sustainable fashion procurement strategies","volume":"107","author":"Niu","year":"2017","journal-title":"Transp Res Part E Logist Transp Rev"},{"key":"B14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3357","DOI":"10.1002\/bse.70338","article-title":"Environmental taxes and subsidies for sustainability: experimental evidence on consumer preferences for business strategy","volume":"35","author":"Cascavilla","year":"2025","journal-title":"Bus Strategy Environ"},{"key":"B15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"441","DOI":"10.3390\/healthcare8040441","article-title":"Optimal subsidy support for market-oriented transformation of elderly care: focus on the gap between supply and demand in aging regions of China","volume":"8","author":"Song","year":"2020","journal-title":"Healthcare"},{"key":"B16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1577","DOI":"10.1051\/ro\/2024043","article-title":"Decision-making model of elderly service companies under government subsidies","volume":"58","author":"Dong","year":"2024","journal-title":"RAIRO Operat Res"},{"key":"B17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2543","DOI":"10.1051\/ro\/2024085","article-title":"Optimal decisions of elderly care service supply chain with government intervention","volume":"58","author":"He","year":"2024","journal-title":"RAIRO Operat Res"},{"key":"B18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"651","DOI":"10.1287\/mksc.1070.0280","article-title":"The bright side of supplier encroachment","volume":"26","author":"Arya","year":"2007","journal-title":"Market Sci"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Public Health"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1890740\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T04:50:29Z","timestamp":1784695829000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1890740\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]]},"references-count":18,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1890740"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1890740","relation":{},"ISSN":["2296-2565"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2296-2565","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]]},"article-number":"1890740"}}