Effects of Social Activities on Labor Participation Among Middle-aged and Older Adults in China

Abstract

As China's population is aging, encouraging middle-aged and older adults to participate in the labor force is of practical significance in alleviating the problems of declining labor supply and rising social burden brought about by population aging. In previous studies on labor participation of the middle-aged and the elderly, scholars have explored factors affecting labor participation of the middle-aged and the elderly in China based on personal characteristics, family factors, social factors, and other perspectives. However, the impact of social participation, which may take various forms, on labor participation of the elderly has been neglected. This paper empirically explores the impact of social participation on labor participation of middle-aged and older adults using data from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Based on OLS regression analyses, the results show that social participation is negatively associated with the number of hours worked per year, at the same time, helping others increases the labor supply time. This paper further proposes suggestions on how to balance time allocated to social participation and to labor participation as well as how to promote labor participation of the middle-aged and the elderly.