Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T13:03:22.088Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The impact of old-age pensions on the happiness level of elderly people – evidence from China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2020

Junqiang Han ,
Xiaodong Zhang  and
Yingying Meng Open the ORCID record for Yingying Meng [Opens in a new window]
Junqiang Han
Affiliation:
School of Public Management, South-Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan, China
Xiaodong Zhang*
Affiliation:
Center for Social Security Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Yingying Meng*
Affiliation:
Center for Social Security Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
*
*Corresponding authors. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
*Corresponding authors. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As an important source of income for elderly people, pensions have a great impact on their wellbeing. There are three different pension systems in China (the Old-age Insurance System for Government Agencies and Institutions (OISGAI), the Basic Old-age Insurance System for Urban Employees (BOISUE) and the Social Insurance of the Old-age Pension for Urban and Rural Residents (SIOPURR)). This study empirically analyses the impact of various pension types on the happiness of elderly people in China and further explores the potential impact mechanism using the 2014 China Family Panel Studies data. The study suggests that first, receiving pensions from OISGAI, BOISUE and SIOPURR is positively correlated with the happiness level of elderly people. Second, the sense of happiness of elderly people who receive BOISUE is higher than that of those receiving SIOPURR, which is mainly caused by the difference in the level of pension benefits. When the level of benefits is controlled for, there is no significant difference between these two groups. Third, when they have the same level of pension benefits, the happiness of elderly people who receive OISGAI is significantly higher than that of those who receive pensions from the other two systems, which is possibly related to the hidden ‘special’ government guarantee and the difference of the growth rate of the benefit level.

Keywords

ageingpension typehappiness levelelderly peoplepension benefits levelgovernment guaranteeChina
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 42 , Issue 5 , May 2022 , pp. 1079 - 1099
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Borgonovi, F (2008) Doing well by doing good. The relationship between formal volunteering and self-reported health and happiness. Social Science & Medicine 66, 2321–2334.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chan, YK and Lee, RPL (2006) Network size, social support and happiness in later life: a comparative study of Beijing and Hong Kong. Journal of Happiness Studies 7, 87–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daniel, K and Angus, D (2010) High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107, 16489–16493.Google Scholar
Darity, WA and Myers, SL (1987) Do transfer payments keep the poor in poverty? American Economic Review 77, 216–222.Google Scholar
Devine, J, Hinks, T and Naveed, A (2019) Happiness in Bangladesh: the role of religion and connectedness. Journal of Happiness Studies 20, 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dutta, P, O'Keefe, P and Rashid, M (2008) The performance of social pensions in India: the case of Rajasthan. Social Protection and Labor the World Bank 11, 95–109.Google Scholar
Easterlin, RA (1974) Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence. Nations & Households in Economic Growth 8, 89–125.Google Scholar
Easterlin, RA (1995) Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 27, 35–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easterlin, RA (2003) Explaining happiness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 100, 11176–11183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fang, Z and Sakellariou, C (2016) Social insurance, income and subjective well-being of rural migrants in China – an application of unconditional quantile regression. Journal of Happiness Studies 17, 1635–1657.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrer-i-Carbonell, A and Frijters, P (2004) How important is methodology for the estimates of the determinants of happiness? Economic Journal 114, 641–659.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frey, BS and Stutzer, A (2010) Happiness and economics: how the economy and institutions affect human well-being. Economic Journal 113, 409–411.Google Scholar
Gorry, A, Gorry, D and Slavov, SN (2018) Does retirement improve health and life satisfaction? Health Economics 27, 2067–2086.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graham, C and Pettinato, S (2001) Happiness, markets, and democracy: Latin America in comparative perspective. Journal of Happiness Studies 2, 237–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, C, Higuera, L and Lora, E (2011) Which health conditions cause the most unhappiness? Health Economics 20, 1431–1447.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hauret, L and Williams, DR (2019) Relative income and pay satisfaction: further evidence on the role of the reference group. Journal of Happiness Studies 20, 307–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helliwell, JF (2003) How's life? Combining individual and national variables to explain subjective well-being. Economic Modelling 20, 331–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helliwell, JF (2010) Well-being, social capital and public policy: what's new? Economic Journal 116, C34–C45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudson, J (2006) Institutional trust and subjective well-being across the EU. Kyklos 59, 43–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keng, SH and Wu, SY (2014) Living happily ever after? The effect of Taiwan's National Health Insurance on the happiness of the elderly. Journal of Happiness Studies 15, 783–808.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kislev, E (2018) Happiness, post-materialist values, and the unmarried. Journal of Happiness Studies 19, 2243–2265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, J and Gunatilaka, R (2010) The rural–urban divide in China: income but not happiness? Journal of Development Studies 46, 506–534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, J, Song, L and Gunatilaka, R (2009) Subjective well-being and its determinants in rural China. China Economic Review 20, 635–649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lei, L and Bin, L (2012) The impact of anticipation on happiness of urban residents in China. Nankai Economic Studies 4, 53–67.Google Scholar
Li, Y, Pickles, A and Savage, M (2005) Social capital and social trust in Britain. European Sociological Review 21, 109–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, X and Liu, X (2017) Subjective welfare effect test of NRPS based on the RD method. Statistics & Information Forum 32, 90–95.Google Scholar
Lu, J and Gao, Q (2017) Faith and happiness in China: roles of religious identity, beliefs, and practice. Social Indicators Research 132, 273–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malone, C and Wachholtz, A (2017) The relationship of anxiety and depression to subjective well-being in a mainland Chinese sample. Journal of Religion & Health 57, 266–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mukuria, C and Brazier, J (2013) Valuing the EQ-5D and the SF-6D health states using subjective well-being: a secondary analysis of patient data. Social Science & Medicine 77, 97–105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muresan, GM, Ciumas, C and Achim, MV (2019) Can money buy happiness? Evidence for European countries. Applied Research in Quality of Life 15, 953–970.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ni, Z and Zhang, K (2020) Does public transfer payment improve residents’ happiness – based on the micro participation behavior and the degree of benefit interpretation. Modern Economic Research 6, 1–14.Google Scholar
Oreopoulos, P (2007) Do dropouts drop out too soon? Wealth, health and happiness from compulsory schooling. Journal of Public Economics 91, 2213–2229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oshio, T and Urakawa, K (2014) The association between perceived income inequality and subjective well-being: evidence from a social survey in Japan. Social Indicators Research 116, 755–770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, SM (2018) Social policy and late-life happiness: the impact of the basic old-age pension on the happiness of older people in South Korea. Quality in Ageing and Older Adults 19, 3–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pu, X and Zhao, H (2020) Study on the influence of basic pension insurance on happiness and its mechanism. Social Security Studies 3, 24–33.Google Scholar
Sasaki, I, Kondo, K, Kondo, N, Aida, J, Ichikawa, H, Kusumi, T, Sueishi, N and Imanaka, Y (2018) Are pension types associated with happiness in Japanese older people? JAGES cross-sectional study. PLOS ONE 13, e0197423.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schatz, E, Gómez-Olivé, X, Ralston, M, Menken, J and Tollman, S (2012) The impact of pensions on health and wellbeing in rural South Africa: does gender matter? Social Science & Medicine 75, 1864–1873.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shin, I and Ercolano, S (2018) Could pension system make us happier? Cogent Economics & Finance 6, 2332–2039.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sun, S, Chen, J, Johannesson, M, Kind, P and Burström, K (2016) Subjective well-being and its association with subjective health status, age, sex, region, and socio-economic characteristics in a Chinese population study. Journal of Happiness Studies 17, 833–873.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tella, RD, MacCulloch, RJ and Oswald, AJ (2001) Preferences over inflation and unemployment: evidence from surveys of happiness. American Economic Review 91, 335–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tella, RD, MacCulloch, RJ and Oswald, AJ (2003) The macroeconomics of happiness. Review of Economics & Statistics 85, 809–827.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tran, NLT, Wassmer, RW and Lascher, EL Jr (2017) The health insurance and life satisfaction connection. Journal of Happiness Studies 18, 409–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, C, Wu, Y and He, G (2018) The effect of NRCMS and NRSPIS on the well-being of rural elderly group. Journal of Northeast Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 65, 1–13.Google Scholar
Yiengprugsawan, V, Somboonsook, B, Seubsman, SA and Sleigh, AC (2012) Happiness, mental health, and socio-demographic associations among a national cohort of Thai adults. Journal of Happiness Studies 13, 1019–1029.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhang, R (2016) Subjective well-being of the elderly in rural areas in Henan Province. Chongqing Social Sciences 12, 68–75.Google Scholar
Zhao, X, Fan, X and Jiang, Y (2013) Income, expectation and public subjective happiness – empirical study based on China survey data. Economist 9, 15–23.Google Scholar
Zheng, B, Zhou, X and Tan, H (2018) Maintaining social pooling combined with individual accounts and expanding individual accounts: the crossroads of the basic old-age insurance system reform. Public Finance Research 10, 55–65.Google Scholar