Economic independence and living arrangements of older women with agricultural Hukou in China

Abstract

This study estimates the economic independence (EI) of older Chinese women with agricultural hukou and examines the relationship between their EI and living arrangements. Using the concept of happiness, the study explains the driving forces of the relationship between these women's EI and living arrangements and summarizes the effects of husbands, children, and grandchildren in terms of the economic substitution effect, economic gravitational effect, and non-economic gravitational effect. Older women's EI is very low, and their average pension income is only 21% of the local average consumption. There is a negative relationship between their EI and the probability of living with their children. Older women with no financial constraints are more likely to live on their own or apart from their children. Happiness drops significantly when older women live with their lower-income children. The substitution effect of a husband's income not only reduces the overall probability of the female elderly living with their children but also reduces the marginal effect of the female elderly's EI on that probability. When older women have low personal EI or poor health, and their children have high incomes, they tend to live with their relatively higher-income children. Grandchildren aged 0–5 generally increase the probability of elderly women living with their children. Common prosperity in China requires enhancing the developmental capacity of all people. Improving the happiness and life quality of the rural female elderly must be approached from two perspectives: from the perspective of the elderly, to increase pension income and improve the actual effect of the social pension service; and from the perspective of children, to ensure their stable employment and income growth and reduce their child-care burdens (both financial and caring) in various ways.