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Understanding the retirement-consumption puzzle through the lens of food consumption-fuzzy regression-discontinuity evidence from urban China

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  • Chen, Qihui
  • Deng, Tinghe
  • Bai, Junfei
  • He, Xiurong

Abstract

This paper provides an understanding of the widely-documented retirement-consumption puzzle from the perspective of food consumption. Exploiting the mandatory retirement age cut-off for public-sector male employees in urban China to obtain a source of exogenous variation in their retirement status, this paper identifies the causal impacts of retirement on four major aspects of their food consumption: food expenditure, time spent in food acquisition, the quantity and quality of food consumed. Based on data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, our fuzzy regression-discontinuity analysis finds that, consistent with the retirement-consumption puzzle, retirement reduces elderly males’ total food expenditure by 49–55%. However, retirement barely changes the quantity of food they consume (measured by total calorie intakes). Further analysis suggests that elderly males substitute time for money in food acquisition upon retirement, which helps to reconcile the differential impacts of retirement on food expenditure and food consumption. Finally, retirement greatly changes elderly males’ diet structure. They consume significantly less food with animal origins (and thus less fat and protein) and more grains (and thus more carbohydrate) upon retirement, which undermines their diet balance by the standards provided by the Chinese Nutrition Association.

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  • Chen, Qihui & Deng, Tinghe & Bai, Junfei & He, Xiurong, 2017. "Understanding the retirement-consumption puzzle through the lens of food consumption-fuzzy regression-discontinuity evidence from urban China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 45-61.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:73:y:2017:i:c:p:45-61
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2017.09.006
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    3. Xinru Han & Ping Xue & Wenbo Zhu & Xiudong Wang & Guojing Li, 2022. "Shrinking Working-Age Population and Food Demand: Evidence from Rural China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-15, November.
    4. Chen, Qihui & Deng, Tinghe & Pei, Chunchen & Wang, Chengcheng, 2018. "Memory of Famine – Does Childhood Experience of Severe Food Shortage Affect Food Choice in Old Age?," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 273897, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Smed, Sinne & Rønnow, Helene Normann & Tetens, Inge, 2022. "The retirement (food)-consumption puzzle revisited - A panel data study from Denmark," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    6. Han, Xinru & Li, Guojing, 2021. "Shrinking Working-Age Population and Food Demand: Evidence from Rural China," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315000, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Julia Mink, 2021. "The effects of major life events and exposure to adverse environmental conditions on health and health-related outcomes [Les effets d'événements majeurs de la vie et de l'exposition à des condition," SciencePo Working papers tel-03575191, HAL.
    8. Xinru Han & Ping Xue & Ningning Zhang, 2021. "Impact of Grain Subsidy Reform on the Land Use of Smallholder Farms: Evidence from Huang-Huai-Hai Plain in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-15, September.
    9. Qihui Chen & Chunchen Pei & Yunli Bai & Qiran Zhao, 2019. "Impacts of Nutrition Subsidies on Diet Diversity and Nutritional Outcomes of Primary School Students in Rural Northwestern China—Do Policy Targets and Incentives Matter?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-14, August.
    10. Wenyan Xu & Qiran Zhao & Shenggen Fan & Chen Zhu, 2023. "Effects of direct grain subsidies on food consumption of rural residents in China," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(S1), pages 1382-1398, December.
    11. Julia Mink, 2021. "The effects of major life events and exposure to adverse environmental conditions on health and health-related outcomes [Les effets d'événements majeurs de la vie et de l'exposition à des condition," SciencePo Working papers Main tel-03575191, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food expenditure; Food consumption; Resource substitution; Retirement; Urban China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E20 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies

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