Chinese Social Security System Research Articles

Changing attitudes towards government responsibility for social welfare in China between 2004 and 2014: Evidence from three national surveys

AbstractSocial policies in China have expanded rapidly since the early 2000s, broadening welfare provisions aiming to improve citizens’ well‐being in a context of rapid development and increasing inequality. How people see the role of the government in the provision of welfare is important to policy‐making in an authoritarian state, such as China, because regime legitimacy is tied to evaluations of government performance. To what extent have welfare attitudes changed as a new Chinese social security system has emerged? Drawing on nationally representative datasets from the China Inequality and Distributive Justice Survey Project for 2004, 2009 and 2014, this study finds that support for government provision of welfare has increased substantially within all population groups since 2004. Furthermore, traditional social cleavages, such as the urban–rural divide, seem to lose strength as a predictor of redistributive preference, possibly ‘deactivating’ these social cleavages as vehicles of political mobilisation.

China: Towards the introduction of dependency/long‐term care insurance

AbstractThe Chinese social security system has been the subject of numerous publications, which have made policy developments more accessible to researchers and administrators from all countries. However, the steps introduced in response to growing demands for intervention by the authorities in favour of dependent persons have remained poorly documented in the international literature. The purpose of this article is to take stock of pilot experiments in this field since the beginning of the 13th Five‐Year Plan (2016–2020) with regard to their policy objective, operating mode and financing modalities.

The health capacity to work at older ages in urban China

Tapping into the older workforce is a potential economic solution to population aging, but its feasibility depends on the health capacity to work among older people. Existing estimations in OECD countries involve establishing the relationship between work and health on a younger cohort, extrapolating the relationship to older individuals, and deriving the excess health capacity as the difference between predicted and actual employment rates. However, benchmarking on the younger cohort is sub-optimal because the observable retirement-health relationship changes with age. The dual nature of the Chinese social security system provides us with a relatively neat benchmark, allowing us to estimate the excess health capacity among urban workers benchmarking on rural residents in the same age range. Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, this choice, combined with other fine-tuning, yields significantly lower but still substantial excess capacity among older urban workers than benchmarking against younger cohorts. Altogether, among urban Chinese aged 45–69, 31.2 million extra workers can potentially be added to the workforce.

China’s social security response to COVID‐19: Wider lessons learnt for social security’s contribution to social cohesion and inclusive economic development

AbstractChina has adopted an array of special social security measures in response to the spread of the COVID‐19 virus, to mitigate the downside social and economic impacts caused by the pandemic. Measures include the reduction, exemption and deferral of social security contributions by employers, the extension of benefits coverage for employees, and the provision of more accessible e‐services by social insurance agencies. The article points out that a preliminary assessment of those measures would suggest that they have played a key role in supporting social cohesion and in stabilizing the economy. In a critical manner, the article compares the measures adopted in China with those of other countries, and identifies how China could learn from international practice and experience. Finally, and based on recent Chinese experience, the article presents proposals that seek to improve the longer‐term contribution made by the Chinese social security system to realize the goals of social cohesion and inclusive economic development. As set out in China’s Social Insurance Law of 2010, the social security system should not only support a fair sharing of benefits of development, but also promote social harmony and stability.

Regional Disparities in China’s Basic Pension Insurance and Labor Migration

China’s basic pension insurance is an essential part of the Chinese social security system. This study is based on a dynamic panel data for 31 provinces in China using system-GMM estimation to analyze the relativity between expenditure level of basic pension insurance and labor migration along with other factors. Both the qualitative analysis and empirical study show how resident population proportion has a negative effect on the expenditure level, while the payment rate has a positive effect on the expenditure level periodically. Population aging structured by death rate has a negative effect on the expenditure level. Thus, implementing the proposed universal pension scheme should be based on the regional disparities in basic pension insurance measured by its expenditure level. Also, transfer payment mechanism should be shaped by labor mobility.

Rural migrants’ participation in old-age insurance: a case study of the inter-provincial migrant workers from Sichuan, China

ABSTRACTOld-age pension, a fundamental part of the Chinese social security system, is perceived by the Chinese government as the last support for rural-to-urban migrant workers upon retreating from the labor market. Using survey data collected by the authors, this paper examines a host of factors which influence migrant workers’ participation in the old-age scheme. The result shows that individual characteristics, employment status, attitudes toward old-age support and perception of the old-age pension system significantly differentiate two groups of migrant workers between those that have participated in and their counterparts who have not participated in the old-age pension schemes. Among a number of factors, age, educational attainment, holding labor contract, etc. are found to be significant factors influencing migrants’ behavior participating (or not participating) the available age-pension schemes. Policy implications for how to improve the rate of participation in existing old-age pension schemes a...

The Chinese Orientation of Social Policies of New Socialized Old-age Insurance System in Rural Areas in the Post Financial Crisis Era

<p>As one of the important social policies, the new socialized old-age insurance system in rural areas has played a vital role in the construction of Chinese social security system in the post financial crisis era. Manifesting national responsibilities，it has embodied the core concept of social policies, and had a great significance for boosting domestic demand. Therefore, this thesis, on the basis of this new system, can continually perfect Chinese pension security system and promote the sustainable development of the social security course.</p>

INCOME REDISTRIBUTION IN URBAN CHINA BY SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM—AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS BASED ON ANNUAL AND LIFETIME INCOME

This study investigates the redistributive effect of social security reform in urban China using the nationally representative urban household surveys of 1995 and 2002. The main findings are as follows. First, public pension is the main income for the elderly in urban China. The majority of people aged 60 and over (72% in 1995 and 82% in 2002) receive a pension. Second, the social security system in urban China has increased the income of low‐income and older age groups and reduced the relative poverty rate. However, the redistributive effect did not offset the expanding income inequality, which resulted in the Gini coefficient of redistributed income in 2002 being higher than that in 1995. Third, during 1995 and 2002, both low‐income and high‐income groups received a positive net benefit from the social security system, but the net benefit increased with income. The Chinese social security system lacks progressivity in contribution, and does not favor the poor in terms of benefits. Fourth, assuming that the reformed policy was applied to public sector employees, the long‐term redistributive effect of the pension system for the working population, calculated using their lifetime income, is larger. (JEL D31, H55, I38)

Institutional Root Cause of the Irregularity of Social Security Funds in China

AbstractThis paper analyzes institutional defects in the Chinese social security system, based on irregularities in social security funds revealed in the Audit Report by the China National Audit Office. The author divides the irregularities into five categories according to the nature of fund use. The results show that the institutional root cause of the irregularities lies in the unreasonable design and operation of the social security system, which currently faces management and institutional risks. This paper argues that simple rhetoric about strengthening regulation and supervision cannot help to reduce illegal practices, or to realize risk control. The only solution is to reform the social security system. Specifically, the Chinese Government should regulate the administrative cost of the social security system, and the behavior of its agencies, through legislation, reform the investment regime to increase rate of return of pension assets, and adjust and reshape the existing social security system, so as to elevate its pooling level.

Social Policymaking and Its Institutional Basis: Transition of The Chinese Social Security System

This article discusses Chinese social policy development in response to the growth of the market economy. It provides a general overview of the system's evolution in three stages: (1) the pre-reform period when a system of enterprise welfare was in operation; (2) a period of system transition; (3) the stage when state welfare began to take shape. These developmental trends are interpreted on the basis of three types of institutional relations: the State-enterprise relation, the enterprise- (or employer-) employee relation, and the individual/worker-State relation. Moreover, the discussion deals with policy perceptions at each stage of the developmental process. Based on these analyses, it illustrates the transformation of the Chinese social security system in a broad socioeconomic and political context, where China struggled to establish a modern, market-based enterprise system. The paper thus expounds issues of socialism, market forces and the power of organized labour.

Recent developments in China’s social security reforms

China is one of the few developing countries which have managed to establish a comprehensive social security system encompassing social insurance (for pension, medical care, unemployment, employment injury and maternity), social assistance and a housing provident fund. The past two decades have witnessed a continuous process of reform in the Chinese social security system. This article highlights the latest developments in each of the schemes and offers some insights into the problems confronting the system and the prospects for the reform.

An Analysis of Urban Household Saving Rate in China

The Household saving in China underwent dramatic changes over the Past two decades. There have been some pervious studies about the savings behavior of urban household in China. But neither of them is enough to answer the question of what the true saving rate of urban household is all about.To examine saving behavior in china, it is essential to separate the rural and urban sectors because, as it will be seen below, different institutions and motives apply in each case. The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical study on urban household saving behavior in China. We focus on the Chinese social security system, which may have lowered saving rate by adopting non-monetary income. Our findings support the conjecture that regime shifts do play an important role in influencing Chinese urban household savings behavior.

Rural migrants into the cities of China: From starvation to under-class

Abstract During the economic reforms that began in the late 1970s, there emerged about 70 million rural migrants in Chinese cities. Simultaneously, the Chinese social security system has undergone significant changes. However, the fundamental feature of the system - the ‘two worlds’ of the excessively elaborate social security programs in the urban areas and the residual provisions in the rural areas - remains. For rural migrants, the social security umbrella designed for urban residents has barely been extended over their heads, despite their physical existence in the cities. Based on an examination of the social well being of these rural migrants, it is argued that immediate action should be taken to protect migrant workers in the cities by the provision of basic social security programs, such as work-related injury insurance and health-care insurance.