IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejapp/v13y2021i2p179-205.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Power of Social Pensions: Evidence from China's New Rural Pension Scheme

Author

Listed:
  • Wei Huang
  • Chuanchuan Zhang

Abstract

This paper utilizes the county-by-county rollout of China's New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS) and finds that, among age-eligible people, the pension scheme leads to higher household income and food expenditure, less farmwork, better health, and lower mortality. In addition, the NRPS shifts age-ineligible adults from farmwork to nonfarmwork but does not significantly affect their income, expenditure, or health. No significant evidence shows that the NRPS affects private transfers or health behaviors. These findings provide relevant evidence of the impacts of social pensions on individual behaviors and welfare for developing countries today and developed countries in the past.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Huang & Chuanchuan Zhang, 2021. "The Power of Social Pensions: Evidence from China's New Rural Pension Scheme," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 179-205, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:179-205
    DOI: 10.1257/app.20170789
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20170789
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E111943V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20170789.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20170789.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/app.20170789?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2000. "Are Recessions Good for Your Health?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(2), pages 617-650.
    2. David M. Cutler & Richard Johnson, 2004. "The Birth and Growth of the Social Insurance State: Explaining Old Age and Medical Insurance Across Countries," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 120(1_2), pages 87-121, July.
    3. Cutler, David & Johnson, Richard, 2004. "The Birth and Growth of the Social Insurance State: Explaining Old-Age and Medical Insurance Across Countries," Scholarly Articles 2643658, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    4. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocio Titiunik, 2014. "Robust Nonparametric Confidence Intervals for Regression‐Discontinuity Designs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82, pages 2295-2326, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huang, Wei & Zhang, Chuanchuan, 2016. "The Power of Social Pensions," IZA Discussion Papers 10425, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Jäger, Philipp, 2019. "The introduction of social pensions and elderly mortality: Evidence 1870-1939," Ruhr Economic Papers 808, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    3. Borgschulte, Mark & Vogler, Jacob, 2019. "Run for your life? The effect of close elections on the life expectancy of politicians," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 18-32.
    4. Nikolov, Plamen & Adelman, Alan, 2019. "Do private household transfers to the elderly respond to public pension benefits? Evidence from rural China," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    5. Nikolov, Plamen & Hossain, Md Shahadath, 2023. "Do pension benefits accelerate cognitive decline in late adulthood? Evidence from rural China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 594-617.
    6. Baten, Jörg & Batinti, Alberto & Costa-Font, Joan & Radatz, Laura, 2024. "Health insurance and height inequality: Evidence from European health insurance expansions," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    7. Perotti, Enrico & Schwienbacher, Armin, 2009. "The political origin of pension funding," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 384-404, July.
    8. Vincenzo Galasso & Paola Profeta, 2018. "When the State Mirrors the Family: The Design of Pension Systems," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 16(6), pages 1712-1763.
    9. Omer Ali Ibrahim & Sonal Devesh, 2020. "Socio-economic Dynamics of Social Insurance in Oman: A Model Approach," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 10(2), pages 37-47.
    10. VANNESTE, Jacques & ZHANG, Ying, 2012. "The impact of government expenditure on prepayment for health services: Evidence from cointegration analysis in heterogeneous panel data," Working Papers 2012029, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    11. Nikolov Plamen & Adelman Alan, 2018. "Short-Run Health Consequences of Retirement and Pension Benefits: Evidence from China," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(2), pages 1-27, December.
    12. Vincenzo Galasso & Paola Profeta, 2013. "From Family Culture to Welfare State Design," CHILD Working Papers Series 14, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    13. Jäger, Philipp, 2017. "Bismarck in the bedroom? Pension reform and fertility: Evidence 1870-2010," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168078, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    14. Rizzo, Giuseppe, 2009. "Fertility and pension systems," MPRA Paper 12998, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Jäger, Philipp, 2017. "Bismarck in the bedroom? Pension reform and fertility: Evidence 1870-2010," Ruhr Economic Papers 677, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    16. Feigl, Andrea B. & Ding, Eric L., 2013. "Evidenced Formal Coverage Index and universal healthcare enactment: A prospective longitudinal study of economic, social, and political predictors of 194 countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 50-60.
    17. Sergio Espuelas-Barroso, 2010. "The determinants of social spending in Spain, 1950-1980, Are dictatorships less redistributive?," Working Papers in Economics 240, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    18. Jiakai Zhang & Renjie Zhao, 2022. "The effect of population aging on pension enforcement: Do firms bear the burden?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(4), pages 1644-1662, October.
    19. Nikolov, Plamen & Adelman, Alan, 2019. "Do Pension Benefits Accelerate Cognitive Decline? Evidence from Rural China," IZA Discussion Papers 12524, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Aggarwal, Raj & Goodell, John W., 2013. "Political-economy of pension plans: Impact of institutions, gender, and culture," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 1860-1879.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
    • P25 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
    • P36 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Consumer Economics; Health; Education and Training; Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:179-205. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.