Social Pension Research Articles

The impact of social pension scheme on the quality of labor supply: empirical evidence based on health human capital

PurposeHigh-quality labor supply is inevitable to maintain sustainable and steady economic growth. This study mainly explores the impact of the social pension system on the health of human capital, and further explores its impact mechanism.Design/methodology/approachOn the basis of the data from China Family Panel Studies from 2012 to 2018, this article uses the fixed effect model and the mediation effect model to empirically study the influence of the social pension scheme on the health of human capital and further explore its influence mechanism.FindingsThis study shows that the social pension scheme can significantly improve the physical and mental health of laborers, especially for low-income and agricultural groups. The implementation of the social pension scheme contributes to increasing medical services and reducing the labor supply for the benefit of human health capital. Therefore, the government should continue to expand the coverage of the social pension scheme and comprehensively improve the importance of human health capital on economic growth.Practical implicationsMedical costs and labor supply play a mediating effect in the relationship between social pension and rural labors' health status, which indicates that medical costs and labor supply level are still important factors affecting the health status of rural labor. There are essential factors affecting the health status of the rural labor force, and their role should be given more consideration in the process of system design and improvement.Originality/valueThe existing studies have more frequently studied the effect of the implementation of social pension schemes from the perspective of economic performance, but this paper evaluates the policy effect of social pension schemes based on the perspective of health human capital, which enriches research on health performance in related fields.

Construction and evaluation of China older-adult care service smart supply chain system.

As the aging of the population continues to deepen, the pressure on social pensions is gradually increasing, and the issue of assistance has become a problem that must be solved. With the development of science and technology, people's living standard is constantly improving. The older-adult care services expected by the older-adult are wider than meeting the basic daily needs of individuals. The current industry should also consider combining modern science and technology with the older-adult care service industry to serve older-adult better and enable older-adult care service providers to move towards the service needs that make people happier and healthier. This research is about constructing and evaluating China's older-adult care services smart supply chain. Based on the research results of previous scholars, this paper divides the Sun construction of the smart supply chain of China endowment service into four aspects: policy aspect, economic aspect, social aspect, and technical aspect; the four significant elements are divided into the first-level indicators, and 16 second-level indicators are divided under the first-level indicators. The importance and satisfaction of each evaluation index were obtained by distributing questionnaires to the managers who study the supply chain and the employees who are related to the old-age service. After the reliability analysis, the importance-performance analysis (IPA) quadrant analysis chart of the evaluation index was constructed using importance-performance analysis. The index of creating a smart supply chain system for China's old-age service is given priority, the supply chain system of China's old-age care service is further improved, and the social security of China's old-age service is enlarged.

Investigation and Analysis of the Physical Exercise Status of the Elderly in Qilin District Nursing Home of Qujing City

In the nursing home, the elderly live together, communicate with each other and entertain together. The investigation found that the elderly in Qilin District Nursing Home of Qujing City rarely take part in physical exercise, and the content of the exercise is its single, the most common exercise is jogging, Qigong and Taijiquan. And there are no perfect sports facilities for the elderly to do physical exercise; and no professional social sports instructors to guide the elderly. In addition, the staff in the nursing home will hardly organize collective physical exercise activities or regularly publicize physical exercise knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary to study and analyze the physical exercise of the elderly in the nursing homes in this area. This paper focuses on the gender and age of the elderly, the education level, the spouse, the situation and influencing factors, the purpose and motivation of the physical exercise, the frequency and intensity of the physical exercise, and the development of the exercise and enhance the awareness of the elderly physical exercise. According to the data released by National Bureau of Statistics, China began to enter an aging society in 2000, and by 2018, the proportion of the population aged 65 and above reached 11.9%, and the aging degree of the population continues to deepen [1]. The change of population structure has greatly challenged the traditional concept of "raising children for old age", and the social pension with the nursing home as the main body will become an inevitable choice for many elderly people [2]. The nursing home is a professional institution for the elderly, with various necessary facilities for the elderly, which can provide them with convenient conditions such as food, clothing, housing and use. In nursing homes, people of similar age teach them to live together, communicate together and entertain together, which can avoid the loneliness caused by family pension and self-retirement [3]. Because the elderly in the nursing home live together for a long time, it is easy to organize together to participate in sports and fitness activities. However, most of the nursing homes in China are social welfare institutions for the special elderly groups, and the service objects are mostly the most vulnerable social groups, with few service items. There is a lack of specialized talents to provide physical exercise guidance for the elderly, and it is difficult to provide scientific, systematic and effective physical exercise guidance for the elderly. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to study and analyze the current situation of physical exercise for the elderly in nursing homes.

The Meaning of Enjoyment of New Rural Social Pension Insurance Benefits

The Meaning of Enjoyment of New Rural Social Pension Insurance Benefits

Design of fitness walker for the elderly based on ergonomic SAPAD model

Abstract Against the social background of the gradual transformation of the social pension mode and the arrival of the ageing age, the tool design of fitness walkers for the elderly was studied. In this paper, the physiological and psychological status of the elderly with mild or moderate stroke or unable to exercise due to the decline of physical function was analysed. In addition, the corresponding elderly fitness walker product market research was studied. Aiming at these problems, this paper proposes a set of elderly fitness walker frames based on the ergonomic semiotic approach of the product architecture design (SAPAD) model. First, the development and structure of artificial engineering is introduced in detail. Then the framework of walking aid for the elderly based on the SAPAD model is proposed, and the SAPAS model and walking aid for the elderly are introduced, respectively, along with the framework of simulation design and application. The experimental results show that the framework of elderly fitness walker based on the ergonomic SAPAD model can be implemented. It can be applied to the elderly’s fitness assistance. A fitness walker can be suitable for the elderly who want to continue to exercise; it also hopes to care for the elderly who need to exercise from the perspective of the product.

URBANIZATION, FINANCIAL SOURCE, AND PLACE OF DEATH AMONG CHINESE LONGEVITY OLDER ADULTS

Abstract The research on place of death among Chinese oldest adults is scare. This study explored the associations of urbanization and financial source on the places of death among Chinese longevity older adults. The sample consists of 21,920 decedents (female=60%, died at home=89%, mean age at death=95) from 2000-2018 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS), conducted by Peking University. Places of death were divided into two categories: home and other sites (including hospitals, institutions and others). Urbanization was measured by residential areas: rural or city. Financial source consisted of family financial support and retirement wage. Chi-square test showed that older adults living in rural areas and getting family finance support were more likely to die at home. Results from binary regression models show that controlling for covariates, decedents living in cities were 6.2 times more likely to die in other places than at home and those received retirement wage were 3.1 times respectively. Notably, older adults who lived in cities and also had retirement wage were 17.7 times more likely to die in other places comparing to those living in rural areas with only family finance support. Findings suggest that more older adults will choose to die at hospitals or institutions as the process of urbanization and the development of social pension system in China, which will put enormous pressure to the hospital-centered healthcare system. Improving the quality of healthcare in grassroots areas might be a feasible attempt to relive the pressure of hospital-centered healthcare system in cities.

Analysis of the impact of social insurance on farmers in China: A study exploring subjective perceptions of well-being and the mechanisms of common prosperity.

Exploring common prosperity in China, this study focuses on the impact of social pension insurance on the well-being of rural communities. It explores the direct beneficiaries and policy effects of the Rural Social Pension Insurance system (RSPI), which was piloted in 2009 and achieved full coverage in 2012. It summarizes the performance and implementation of social pension insurance and the development of the rural social pension system. The article uses microdata from the four most recent periods of China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), which were undertaken in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018, and uses the Order Probit model to analyze the effects of participating in insurance on rural residents in terms of their subjective well-being. The study identifies diverse effects on farmers from different age groups, genders, and regions, with a focus on subjective well-being. The article also tests the mediating effects of health status and self-rated social status on farmers' subjective well-being and their mechanisms of action. Findings reveal that participating in the insurance system significantly improved the subjective well-being of rural residents. Its biggest beneficiaries were groups of rural residents with poor health status, living in good overall conditions. Taking into account the most recent aims of this policy, to promote rural revitalization and common prosperity, further optimization of the rural pension insurance system should improve the living standards of low-income groups, enabling more comprehensive coverage, and potentially helping to mitigate the risk of returning to poverty due to illness. Developments in basic social security and the rural basic pension system could effectively guarantee the basic standards of living of rural residents. Future development of the system should take into account the heterogeneous characteristics of rural residents and implement social pension protection policies in accordance with local conditions.

Correction to: Social Pensions and Children’s Educational Outcomes: The Case of New Rural Pension Scheme in China

Correction to: Social Pensions and Children’s Educational Outcomes: The Case of New Rural Pension Scheme in China

The influence of social and commercial pension insurance differences and social capital on the mental health of older adults-Microdata from China.

The number of older adults is rising rapidly in China. Various concerns such as chronic diseases, financial inadequacy, and a feeling of loneliness have adversely affected the mental health of older adults, and this has become an important public health and social issue. To realize healthy aging, the Nineteenth National People's Congress of China put forth the Healthy China strategy, speeding up the promotion activities of mental health and pension measures, carrying out public welfare pension insurance for the entire population, and contributing to the mental health of older adults. This study used data from China Family Panel Studies. This study mainly uses the random effect estimation method (random effect, RE) and the feasible generalized least squares estimation method (FGLS) to control for heterogeneity to explore the impact of social and commercial pension insurance on the mental health of older adults, the moderating effect of social capital on pension insurance, and the mental health of older adults. The results showed that social pension insurance is proportional to the mental health of older adults, whereas commercial pension insurance is inversely proportional to mental health. Social capital had a significant moderating effect on pension insurance. When a country develops an aging economy, the emphasis on social capital helps make targeted industrial development suggestions. The government's expansion of insurance coverage is crucial for improving the mental health of older adults.

Health improvements of older adults based on benefit duration: Lessons from Korean social pension policies

The social pension, introduced in 2008 in Korea, has now become the most prominent old age income for most older adults. As of May 2022, it paid a monthly benefit of around USD 275 for 6.0 million older persons aged 65 and over who belong to the bottom 70% of the income and asset distribution. Although social pension's objectives focus on alleviating old age poverty and increasing income levels, it also encompasses a clear implication on health: social pension benefit can be spent on items or activities that improve the beneficiary's health.Using the Korean Longitudinal Study on Ageing data, between 2006 and 2018, and the Propensity Score Matching combined with Generalized Difference-In-Differences based on event study design, this study investigates the effects of receiving the social pension on objective measures of health that are representative of health and well-being in old age, by benefit duration. Study results showed that continually receiving social pension significantly improved beneficiaries’ grip strength and cognitive ability. Grip strength was improved by 2.3-kg in the fifth year of receiving social pension. Additionally, the cognitive ability (K-MMSE score) was improved by 1.309 points in the first year. Results of descriptive analysis suggested that the social pension may have benefitted the health of the beneficiaries by improving their nutrition, health care utilization, and physical activities, and reducing financial strain and associated stress level.To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the cumulative effects of nation-wide social pension programs on older adults’ objective health measures by benefit duration up to five years, in a high-income country setting where old age income security systems are under-developed.

The Old-Age Security Motive for Fertility: Evidence from the Extension of Social Pensions in Namibia

The old-age security motive for fertility postulates that people’s needs for old-age support raise the demand for children. We exploit the extension of social pensions in Namibia during the 1990s to provide a quasi-experimental quantification of this widespread idea. The reform eliminated inequalities in pension coverage and benefits across regions and ethnic groups. Combining differences in pre-reform pensions and differences in exposure across cohorts, we show that pensions substantially reduce fertility, especially in late reproductive life. The results suggest that improving social protection for the elderly could go a long way in fostering fertility decline in sub-Saharan Africa. (JEL H55, I38, J13, J14, O15)

Does social pension buy improved mental health and mortality outcomes for senior citizens? Evidence from South Africa's 2008 pension reform

In South Africa, men were traditionally eligible to receive government pensions at 65 years. However, that eligibility criterion was changed in 2008 to allow men to receive a pension payout at 60 years. This study is designed to quantify the impact of the 2008 pension reform on mental health outcomes (depression and traumatic stress) and deaths among 60-year-old men from disadvantaged households without advanced education. This analysis used secondary data issued by Statistic South Africa- General Household Survey. Men who reported earning a pension at 60 years from 2008 to 2014 were exposed to the 2008 pension reform and thus were classified as the treatment group. The 60-year-old men during 2002–2007 were ineligible to earn the pension, therefore considered the control group. We then used a Two-stage Least Squared Model (2SLS) to quantify the impact of the 2008 pension reform on healthcare utilization, depression cases, traumatic stress cases, and deaths among 60-year-old men. The model shows that the 2008 pension reform improved healthcare utilization by 3 % in the cohorts of men who benefitted from the 2008 reform. The 2008 pension reform averted depression cases, traumatic stress cases, and deaths among 60-year-old men by 3 %, 4 %, and 5 %, respectively. The impact of the 2008 pension reform in averting deaths among 60-year-old men was higher in urban regions than rural regions. We concluded that the 2008 pension reform successfully bought improved mental health outcomes and prevented depression, traumatic stress, and deaths among 60-year-old men.

Subnational policy innovation: The birth of social pensions in Mexico

AbstractThe re‐emergence of universalistic social policy in Latin America in the 2000s, led to the implementation of non‐contributory and unconditional old‐pensions programmes in the region. Unlike other Latin American countries, these programmes originated at the subnational level in Mexico. In 2001, Mexico City's government implemented the first universal programme of social pensions in the country. This work seeks to explain why and how this policy innovation emerged and became a social right in Mexico City, in spite of the dominance of a neoliberal policy paradigm at the national level. This analysis shows the decisive role of the struggle of key actors over policy ideas in the creation of social pensions in Mexico, as well as its interaction with other economic, political and institutional factors, in a federal context.

Pension exposure and health: Evidence from a longitudinal study in South Africa.

Social protection schemes have been expanding around the world with the objective of protecting older persons during retirement. While theoretically they have been seen as tools to improve individual wellbeing, there are few studies that evaluate whether social pensions can improve health. In this study, we exploit the change in eligibility criteria for the South African Old Age grant to estimate the association between pension exposure eligibility and health of older persons. For this, we use data from the Health and Aging in Africa: A longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI) and model pension exposure in terms of its cumulative effect. Our results show that pension exposure is associated with better health as measured by a set of health indices. Disentangling these effects, we find that pension exposure is most likely to improve health through the delayed onset of physical disabilities in the elderly population. Our study highlights the relevance of social protection schemes as a mechanism to protect older persons physical health.

Rural Social Security, Precautionary Savings, and the Upgrading of Rural Residents’ Consumption Structure in China

Based on the 2012 and 2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) data, this paper explores the influence mechanism between rural social security, precautionary savings, and the upgrading of rural residents’ consumption structure in China from theoretical and empirical perspectives. The results show that China’s rural social security can significantly promote the upgrading of rural residents’ consumption structure, and 1.79% of the positive effect of China’s rural social security on the upgrading of rural residents’ consumption structure in China is realized through the mediating effect of precautionary saving; the robustness of the regression results is tested by a placebo test and substitution matching method. Through further research, it is found that the promotion effect of China’s rural social security on the upgrading of rural residents’ consumption structure in China varies by region and age. In order to promote the sustainable upgrading of rural residents’ consumption structure, rural social security policies should be further improved, and new rural social pension insurance policies should be formulated according to local conditions, which will ultimately promote the economic development of rural areas.

New Rural Social Pension Insurance, Income and the Happiness of Rural Residents

With the implementation of the New Rural Social Pension Insurance (NRSPI) in China, many rural elderly people benefit from this program. But will the same grade of pension produce the same utility for each individual? This paper analyzes the panel data of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) from 2011 to 2018, and uses the Continuous-Difference In Differences(Continuous DID) model to investigate the effect of the NRSPI on happiness improvement in individuals with different incomes. The results show that the pension can significantly improve the satisfaction of the rural elderly, and this utility will decrease with the increase of income. This study has reference significance for rural residents to choose the grade of the insurance according to their personal situation, and has reference value for the government to improve the old-age insurance policy.

Does attending in social pension program promotes household energy transition? Evidence from ethnical minority regions of rural China

It is of great significance to promote rural household energy transition to improve residents' welfare and sustainable economic development. However, economic poverty and income uncertainty hinder households' transition to cleaner energy. The initiation of social pension plays a crucial role in combating income shock and promoting household consumption. In contrast, there is little literature on the relationship between social pension and household energy consumption. This article addresses this question by exploring the role of social pension in promoting household energy transition. We adopt the Chinese Household Ethnicity Survey (CHES, 2013) and apply the control function approach to test for the causal effects of social pension in promoting household energy transition. Our empirical results reveal that social pension reduces rural residents' adoption of solid fuels. The reduction effect of social pension on household solid fuel use will be significantly enhanced with the increase in family members participating in the social pension program. We also find that household members with religious faiths and the number of ethnic minorities within a family could strengthen the negative effect of social pension on household solid fuel use. Moreover, we identify intra-household transfer and labour mobility within the family as channels. Our findings suggest that expanding access to social pension would have considerable benefits in promoting household energy transition.

The Impact of Social Pension Schemes on the Mental Health of the Chinese Elderly: A Mediating Effect Perspective of Two-Way Intergenerational Support.

With the rapid decline in China’s fertility rate, the acceleration of aging, the continuous miniaturization and nucleation of China’s family structure, and the deterioration of the elderly’s living conditions and mental states, the elderly’s mental health has emerged as a major public health issue and a major social problem. Pensions are the elderly’s primary source of income, and they can help them meet their basic needs while also promoting family harmony and improving their mental health. Based on the data of the 2012, 2016, and 2018 Chinese Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we empirically examined the impact of pensions on the elderly’s mental health by using the fixed effects model, mediating effect model, and so on. The results show that receiving pension benefits can significantly reduce the level of depression and improve the mental health of the elderly. Receiving pension benefits causes reverse intergenerational economic transfer, which reduces the effect of pensions on the elderly’s mental health to some extent, but the life care and mental comfort provided by children increases when the elderly share pensions with their children. Overall, receiving pension benefits improves the mental health of the elderly. In addition, the effect of pensions on the elderly with different characteristics is heterogeneous. The older elderly, women, the elderly living with their children, and the elderly in rural areas all benefit more from receiving pension benefits. Moreover, the worse the mental health of the elderly is, the stronger the influence of pensions on their mental health is. Our discussion has important policy implications.

The pursuit of simplicity: Can simplifying eligibility criteria improve social pension targeting?

Governments in developing countries struggle to reach intended beneficiaries when targeting social transfers towards vulnerable populations. Rates of eligible individuals not receiving social transfers and ineligible individuals receiving them tend to be high, constraining the effectiveness of such anti-poverty programs. While interventions to incentivize or monitor local agents in charge of selecting beneficiaries are typically expensive, an important complementary and cost-effective approach could be to reform eligibility criteria to facilitate the selection of beneficiaries. Whether reforms should focus on reducing the number of rules, or selecting criteria which are easy to verify, or do both remains an unanswered question. We address this knowledge gap based on India’s social pension scheme for elderly poor. We find that making eligibility criteria easier to verify has the potential to achieve a substantial improvement in the targeting performance through a reduction in the exclusion error. Those who meet the relevant criteria have a much higher chance of actually becoming beneficiaries. Since eligibility criteria can be changed at low cost, this suggests a viable route for reform in many developing countries. However, a major caveat remains that criteria must sufficiently well reflect actual poverty if the more accurate selection of beneficiaries according to formal criteria shall also translate into actual poverty reduction.

Social Pensions and Children’s Educational Outcomes: The Case of New Rural Pension Scheme in China

Social Pensions and Children’s Educational Outcomes: The Case of New Rural Pension Scheme in China