IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reveco/v97y2025ics1059056024008086.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Elderly care burden and household investment behavior: The roles of family income, social security, and long-term care insurance

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Zhen
  • Huang, Yaoxuan
  • Chen, Min
  • Li, Changle

Abstract

The rapid aging of China's population has intensified the burden of elderly care on families, with potential implications for household financial decision-making. While existing research has examined the effects of caregiving on household savings behavior, the impact of eldercare responsibilities on household investment strategies has received little attention. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we find that elderly care burden significantly reduce households' participation in risky investments. This relationship is moderated by family income and social security coverage, with higher levels of both mitigating the negative effect. Furthermore, our heterogeneity analysis of Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) pilot programs—a key policy initiative launched in 2016 to address eldercare, which indicates that the negative effect of the elderly care burden on risk investment is more pronounced in LTCI pilot cities compared to non-pilot cities. These findings provide new insights into how demographic shifts and policy interventions influence household investment strategies, offering important implications for policymakers aiming to balance eldercare support with economic development objectives in aging societies.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Zhen & Huang, Yaoxuan & Chen, Min & Li, Changle, 2025. "Elderly care burden and household investment behavior: The roles of family income, social security, and long-term care insurance," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:97:y:2025:i:c:s1059056024008086
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2024.103816
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056024008086
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iref.2024.103816?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Haidong Yuan & Chin-Hong Puah & Josephine Tan-Hwang Yau, 2022. "How Does Population Aging Impact Household Financial Asset Investment?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Dong‐Hyeon Kim & Peiyao Liu & Shu‐Chin Lin, 2024. "Population aging and saving: Evidence from China," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 1494-1521, November.
    3. Hiroshi Fujiki & Naohisa Hirakata & Etsuro Shioji, 2012. "Aging and Household Stockholdings: Evidence from Japanese Household Survey Data," IMES Discussion Paper Series 12-E-17, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan.
    4. Arjen Hussem & Casper Ewijk & Harry Rele & Albert Wong, 2016. "The Ability to Pay for Long-Term Care in the Netherlands: A Life-cycle Perspective," De Economist, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 209-234, June.
    5. Jingyi Wang & Jing Guan & Guojun Wang, 2023. "Impact of long‐term care insurance on the health status of middle‐aged and older adults," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 558-573, March.
    6. Hanming Fang & Michael P. Keane & Dan Silverman, 2008. "Sources of Advantageous Selection: Evidence from the Medigap Insurance Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(2), pages 303-350, April.
    7. Rosen, H.S.Harvey S. & Wu, Stephen, 2004. "Portfolio choice and health status," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 457-484, June.
    8. Kimball, Miles S, 1990. "Precautionary Saving in the Small and in the Large," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(1), pages 53-73, January.
    9. Pengpeng Yue & Aslihan Gizem Korkmaz & Zhichao Yin & Haigang Zhou, 2021. "Household-owned Businesses’ Vulnerability to the COVID-19 Pandemic," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(6), pages 1662-1674, May.
    10. Lu Wang & Rose Gilroy & Andrew Law, 2023. "Shifting elder-care practices in Chinese middle-class families," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(3), pages 1-13, March.
    11. Arjen Hussem & Casper Ewijk & Harry Rele & Albert Wong, 2016. "The Ability to Pay for Long-Term Care in the Netherlands: A Life-cycle Perspective," De Economist, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 209-234, June.
    12. Gianluigi Guido & Cesare Amatulli & Andrea Sestino, 2020. "Elderly consumers and financial choices: A systematic review," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(3), pages 76-85, December.
    13. Si Shi & Yawen Jiang, 2022. "Does supplemental private health insurance incentivize household risky financial asset investment? Evidence from the China Household Financial Survey," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 369-421, December.
    14. Feng, Jin & He, Lixin & Sato, Hiroshi, 2011. "Public pension and household saving: Evidence from urban China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 470-485.
    15. Han, Chang-Keun & Sherraden, Michael, 2009. "Do institutions really matter for saving among low-income households? A comparative approach," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 475-483, June.
    16. Xu, Dandan & Guo, Dongli & Yue, Pengpeng & Li, Mengshi, 2024. "Household green consumption: Does digital inclusion matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    17. Bakshi, Gurdip S & Chen, Zhiwu, 1994. "Baby Boom, Population Aging, and Capital Markets," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 67(2), pages 165-202, April.
    18. He, Hui & Huang, Feng & Liu, Zheng & Zhu, Dongming, 2018. "Breaking the “iron rice bowl:” Evidence of precautionary savings from the chinese state-owned enterprises reform," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 94-113.
    19. Feng, Jin & Wang, Zhen & Yu, Yangyang, 2020. "Does long-term care insurance reduce hospital utilization and medical expenditures? Evidence from China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    20. Gu, Yao & Zhu, Xingui, 2024. "Homeownership and household risky asset holdings: Moderating role of social security and the mediating role of subjective well-being," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    21. Fang, Ming & Li, Haiyang & Wang, Qin, 2021. "Risk tolerance and household wealth--Evidence from Chinese households," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 885-895.
    22. Shao, Zhanqiang & Chen, Chen, 2024. "Impact of long-term care insurance on the financial asset allocation of middle-aged and elderly households: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PC).
    23. Deng, Xin & Yu, Mingzhe, 2021. "Does the marginal child increase household debt? – Evidence from the new fertility policy in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    24. David E. Bloom & David Canning & Michael Moore, 2014. "Optimal Retirement with Increasing Longevity," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 116(3), pages 838-858, July.
    25. Ye, Xiang & Yue, Pengpeng, 2023. "Financial literacy and household energy efficiency: An analysis of credit market and supply chain," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    26. Xinxin Ma, 2022. "Medical Insurances and Financial Portfolio Choice," Springer Books, in: Public Medical Insurance Reforms in China, chapter 0, pages 193-215, Springer.
    27. Youhua Wang & Yushuang Zheng & Yue Li & Markus Schafer, 2024. "Enhancing Older Household Consumption: The Impact of Long-Term Care Insurance in China," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 79(6), pages 2375-2451.
    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. Wang, Pengcheng & Yang, Xuelin, 2024. "Social trust and household financial decision-making: An empirical study based on the usage of household financial technology," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Jiao, Lei & Lu, Sijin & Chen, Changchun & Feng, Yu, 2024. "Social security, relative deprivation, digital capacity, and household financial investment behavior," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    3. Liu, Hong & Ma, Jinqiu & Zhao, Liqiu, 2023. "Public long-term care insurance and consumption of elderly households: Evidence from China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Raslan Alzuabi & Sarah Brown & Daniel Gray & Mark N Harris & Christopher Spencer, 2022. "Household saving, health, and healthcare utilization in Japan [Stature, obesity, and portfolio choice]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 473-497.
    5. Dong, Jingxuan, 2024. "Digital finance’s impact on household portfolio diversity: Evidence from Chinese households," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    6. Guo, Wei, 2024. "Income volatility and household commercial insurance allocation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    7. Xu, Xiuli & Xu, Panpan & Bai, Haiqing, 2024. "Working hours and household financial asset allocation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    8. Zhao, Dongfang & Gao, Genghe & Liu, Tao & Zhao, Zhenkun, 2024. "Population aging, digital divide, and household financial asset choices—An empirical study based on prefecture-level population census data," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    9. Liu, Pingfen & Cai, Peifeng & Wang, Jing, 2025. "The dual driving mechanism of financial literacy and risky financial assets on household entrepreneurial decision-making," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    10. Li, Qianqian & Zhao, Zhengtang & Chen, Tingting, 2024. "The effect of public pension insurance integration on income disparities between urban-rural households: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    11. 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).
    12. He, Yiran & He, Xinao & Yan, Siyu & Huang, Jian, 2025. "Social security, health capital and household investment behavior," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    13. Gu, Yao & Zhu, Xingui, 2024. "Homeownership and household risky asset holdings: Moderating role of social security and the mediating role of subjective well-being," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    14. Rui Yao & Yilan Xu & Jie Zhang, 2023. "Financial resilience of two‐worker households from a health perspective," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(3), pages 1258-1280, July.
    15. Carole Bonnet & Sandrine Juin & Anne Laferrère, 2019. "Private Financing of Long‑Term Care: Income, Savings and Reverse Mortgages," Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE), issue 507-508, pages 5-24.
    16. Phitawat Poonpolkul, 2023. "Age-Dependent Risk Aversion: Re-evaluating Fiscal Policy Impacts of Population Aging," PIER Discussion Papers 198, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    17. Rachel J. Huang & Arthur Snow & Larry Y. Tzeng, 2017. "Advantageous Selection in Insurance Markets with Compound Risk," The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association), vol. 42(2), pages 171-192, September.
    18. Renaud Bourlès, 2017. "Prevention incentives in long‐term insurance contracts," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 661-674, September.
    19. Niu, Geng & Wang, Qi & Li, Han & Zhou, Yang, 2020. "Number of brothers, risk sharing, and stock market participation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    20. Sandrine Juin, 2016. "Care for dependent elderly people : dealing with health and financing issues," Erudite Ph.D Dissertations, Erudite, number ph16-02 edited by Thomas Barnay, September.

    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:eee:reveco:v:97:y:2025:i:c:s1059056024008086. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620165 .

    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.