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China’s public long-term care insurance and risky asset allocation among elderly households

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  • He, Min
  • Lin, Lin

Abstract

China’s elderly households are characterized by higher holdings of cash and cash equivalents and lower holdings of stocks and bonds in their financial portfolios. We utilize the public Long-term Care Insurance (LTCI) reform and data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) to examine how LTCI coverage affects risky asset holdings among newly insured elderly households. Employing a difference-in-differences methodology, our findings reveal that LTCI significantly increases the share of risky assets in the financial portfolios of older families. The increased preference for risky assets may be a result of a weakening incentive for precautionary savings. Decomposing risky assets into bonds and stocks, we find that the increase in the share of risky assets following the LTCI pilot comes mainly from bond investments rather than stocks, which indicates that LTCI has a limited effect on risk asset holdings among the Chinese elderly. Our study contributes to understanding the economic impacts of China’s public LTCI by showing that LTCI may lead to changes in asset allocation strategies among elderly households.

Suggested Citation

  • He, Min & Lin, Lin, 2024. "China’s public long-term care insurance and risky asset allocation among elderly households," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joecag:v:29:y:2024:i:c:s2212828x24000318
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2024.100531
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Risky asset allocation; Long-term care insurance; Social security policy; Precautionary saving;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

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