Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T12:16:15.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Protection for the Informal Sector in Urban China: Institutional Constraints and Self-selection Behaviour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2017

JIN JIANG ,
JIWEI QIAN Open the ORCID record for JIWEI QIAN [Opens in a new window]  and
ZHUOYI WEN Open the ORCID record for ZHUOYI WEN [Opens in a new window]
JIN JIANG
Affiliation:
Division of Graduate Studies, Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies, Lingnan University, 8 Castle Peak Road, Tuen Mun, New Territories, Hong Kong. e-mail: [email protected]
JIWEI QIAN
Affiliation:
East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore, 469A Bukit Timah Road Tower Block #06-01Singapore259770 e-mail: [email protected]
ZHUOYI WEN
Affiliation:
Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies, Lingnan University, 8 Castle Peak Road, Tuen Mun, New Territories, Hong Kong e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Chinese government has recently expanded the scope of urban social insurance programmes. However, social protection for the labour force of the urban informal sector, which reaches about half the number of urban workers, lags significantly behind. This under-coverage may be due to institutional constraints, particularly the household registration system hukou, and self-selection behaviour related to the limited benefits of social insurance. Drawing on a recent nationwide individual-level survey and city-level statistics, this study examines these two explanations for the under-enrolment on the social insurance programme. First, results suggest that hukou and the intergovernmental fiscal system are major institutional constraints. Second, self-selection behaviour in programme enrolment is verified. Employers in the informal sector are likely to opt out of social insurance. More importantly, employers in the informal sector, with rural or non-local hukou, are likely to opt out of social insurance, which suggests that self-selection behaviour is constrained by institutions. Such findings have important implications for broad theoretical and policy debates on universal social protection.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , April 2018 , pp. 335 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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

Barber, S. L. and Yao, L. (2010), ‘Health insurance systems in China: a briefing note’, World Health Report.Google Scholar
Bangasser, P. E. (2000), The ILO and the informal sector: an institutional history. Retrieved from http://www.ilo.int/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_emp/documents/publication/wcms_142295.pdf.Google Scholar
Berens, S. (2015), ‘Between exclusion and calculation solidarity? Preferences for private versus public welfare provision and the size of the informal sector’, Socio-Economic Review, 13, 4, 651–678.Google Scholar
Blekesaune, M. (2007), ‘Economic conditions and public attitudes to welfare policies’, European Sociological Review, 23, 3, 393–403.Google Scholar
Bridgen, P. and Meyer, T. (2014), ‘The liberalisation of the German social model: public-private pension reform in Germany since 2001’, Journal of Social Policy, 43, 1, 37–68.Google Scholar
Canagarajah, S. and Sethuraman, S. V. (2001), Social protection and the informal sector in developing countries: Challenges and opportunities. World Bank.Google Scholar
Chen, J. and Gallagher, M. E. (2013), ‘Urban social insurance provision: Regional and workplace variations’, in Besharov, D., & Baehler, K. (eds.). Chinese Social Policy in a Time of Transition. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 886–100.Google Scholar
Cheng, Z., Nielsen, I. and Smyth, R. (2014), ‘Access to social insurance in urban China: a comparative study of rural-urban and urban-urban migrants in Beijing’, Habitat International, 41, 243–252.Google Scholar
Clasen, J. and Goerne, A. (2011), ‘Exit Bismarck, enter dualism? Assessing contemporary German labour market policy’, Journal of Social Policy, 40, 4, 795–810.Google Scholar
Erlinghagen, M. and Knuth, M. (2010), ‘Unemployment as an institutional construct? Structural differences in non-employment between selected European countries and the United States’, Journal of Social Policy, 39, 1, 71–94.Google Scholar
Gao, Q. and Rickne, J. (2015), ‘Inequality in social insurance participation and generosity: do firm characteristics matter?’, Social Policy and Administration. DOI: 10.1111/spol.12195.Google Scholar
Gao, Q., Yang, S. and Li, S. (2012), ‘Labor contracts and social insurance participation among migrant workers in China’, China Economic Review, 23, 1195–1205.Google Scholar
Gao, Q., Yang, S. and Li, S. (2013), ‘The Chinese welfare state in transition: 1988–2007’, Journal of Social Policy, 42, 4, 743–762.Google Scholar
Ghose, A. K. (2005), Employment in China: recent trends and future challenges. Employment Analysis Unit, Employment Strategy Department, International Labour Office.Google Scholar
Giles, J., Park, A. and Cai, F. (2006), ‘How has economic restructuring affected China's urban workers?’, The China Quarterly, 185, 61–95.Google Scholar
Giles, J., Wang, D. and Park, A. (2013), ‘Expanding social insurance coverage in urban China’, in Giulietti, C., Tatsiramos, K. and Zimmermann, K. (eds.) Labor Market Issues in China, Research in Labor Economics, Bingley: Emerald Group Publish, pp. 123–179.Google Scholar
van Ginneken, W. (1999), ‘Social security for the informal sector: A new challenge for the developing countries’. International Social Security Review, 52, 49–69.Google Scholar
Guo, Y., Tian, M., Han, K., Johnson, K. and Zhao, L. (2016), ‘What determines pension insurance participation in China? Triangulation and the intertwined relationship among employers, employees and the government’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27, 2142–2160.Google Scholar
Guo, Y. and Wang, C. (2016), ‘The New Cooperative Medical System and entrepreneurship’, China Economic Quarterly, 3, 1463–1482.Google Scholar
Gustafsson, B., Shi, L. and Sato, H. (2014), ‘Data for studying earnings, the distribution of household income and poverty in China’, China Economic Review, 30, 419–431.Google Scholar
Hu, A. (2015), China's Social insurance in the twentieth century: a global historical perspective. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Hu, A. and Zhao, L. (2006), ‘Informal employment and informal economy in the economic transformation in the process of urbanization in China (1990-2004)’, Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 21, 3, 111–119. [in Chinese]Google Scholar
Huang, Y. (2012), ‘The ‘making out’ game outside the factory: a case study of ‘making out’ production in Pearl River Delta Area’, The Sociological Studies, (4): 187–203. [in Chinese]Google Scholar
Huang, P. (2013), ‘China's informal economy revisited’, Rural China: An International Journal of History and Social Science, 10, 66–82.Google Scholar
Huang, X. (2014), ‘Expansion of Chinese social health insurance: who gets what, when and how? ’, Journal of Contemporary China. 23, 89, 923–951.Google Scholar
Huang, X. (2015), ‘Four worlds of welfare: understanding subnational variation in Chinese social health insurance’, The China Quarterly, 222, 49–474.Google Scholar
Hussmanns, R. (2004), Measuring the informal economy: From employment in the informal sector to informal employment. Retrieved from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---integration/documents/publication/wcms_079142.pdf Google Scholar
International Labour Organization (ILO). (2014), World social protection report 2014/15: building economic recovery, inclusive development and social justice (Geneva). Retrieved from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_245201.pdf.Google Scholar
International Labour Organization (ILO). (2015), Concept note on the World Bank Group and ILO universal social protection initiative. Retrieved from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_245201.pdf Google Scholar
Kim, K. (2001), ‘Determinants of the timing of social insurance legislation among 18 OECD countries’, International Journal of Social Welfare, 10, 1, 2–13.Google Scholar
Kim, M. (2016), Comparative welfare capitalism in East Asia: productivist models of social policy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kumar, S. and Li, B. (2007), ‘Urban labour market changes and social protection for urban informal workers: challenges for China and India’. in Wu, F. (eds.) China's Emerging Cities: The Making of New Urbanism. Routledge, London, UK, pp. 109–125.Google Scholar
Liu, J., Liu, K. and Huang, Y. (2015), ‘Transferring from the poor to the rich: examining regressive redistribution in Chinese social insurance programmes’, International Journal of Social Welfare, 25,2, 199–210.Google Scholar
Lowndes, V. and Roberts, M. (2013), ‘Why institutions matter: the new institutionalism in political science’, London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). (2013), China statistical yearbook 2013. Beijing: China Statistical Press.Google Scholar
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). (2015), Monitoring report on rural migrant workers 2014. Retrieved from http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/zxfb/201504/t20150429_797821.html.Google Scholar
Ngok, K. (2016), ‘Modern Chinese welfare achievements and challenges ahead’, In Ngok, K. and Chan, C (ed.) China's Social Policy: Transformation and Challenges. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nielsen, I., Nyland, C., Smyth, R., Zhang, M. and Zhu, C. J. (2005), ‘Which rural migrants receive social insurance in Chinese cities? Evidence from Jiangsu survey data’, Global Social Policy, 5, 3, 353–381.Google Scholar
Nyland, C., Smyth, R. and Zhu, C. J. (2006), ‘What determines the extent to which employers will comply with their social security obligations? Evidence from Chinese firm-level data’, Social Policy & Administration, 40, 2, 196–214.Google Scholar
Park, A. and Cai, F. (2011), ‘The informalization of the Chinese labor market’, in Kuruvilla, S., Lee, C., & Gallagher, M. (eds.) From iron rice bowl to informalization: markets, state and workers in a changing China, Ithaca: ILR Press, pp. 17–35.Google Scholar
Park, A., Wu, Y. and Du, Y. (2012), Informal employment in urban China: measurement and implications. Washington DC; World Bank.Google Scholar
Pellissery, S. and Walker, R. (2007), ‘Social security options for informal sector workers in emergent economies and the Asia and Pacific region’, Social Policy & Administration, 41, 4, 401–409.Google Scholar
Qian, J. and Mok, K. H. (2016), ‘Dual decentralization and fragmented authoritarianism in governance: crowding out among social programmes in China’, Public Administration and Development, 36, 3, 185–197.Google Scholar
Rickne, J. (2013), ‘Labor market conditions and social insurance in China’, China Economic Review, 27, 52–68.Google Scholar
Ringen, S. and Ngok, K. (2013), What kind of welfare state is emerging in China? ’, The Social Security in China Project, Asian Studies Centre, St. Antony's College, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Rueda, R. (2005), ‘Insider-outsider politics in industrialized democracies: the challenge to social democratic parties’, The American Political Science Review, 99, 1, 61–74.Google Scholar
Shaefer, H. (2010), ‘Identifying key barriers to unemployment insurance for disadvantaged workers in the United States’, Journal of Social Policy, 39, 3, 439–460.Google Scholar
Shi, S. (2012), ‘Towards inclusive social citizenship? Rethinking China's social security in the trend towards urban-rural harmonization’, Journal of Social Policy, 41, 4, 789–810.Google Scholar
Shutes, I. (2016), ‘Work-related conditionality and the access to social benefits of national citizens, EU and Non-EU citizens’, Journal of Social Policy, 45, 4, 691–707.Google Scholar
Sjöberg, O. (1999), ‘Paying for social rights’, Journal of Social Policy, 28, 2, 275–297.Google Scholar
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) (2012), Towards Universal Social Security in Emerging Economies:Process, Institutions and Actors. Retrieved from http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BB128/search/D418B0BADDCE6080C1257A3F00412709.Google Scholar
Wang, S. (2008), ‘The great transformation: the double movement in China’, Boundary 2: An International Journal of Literature and Culture, 35, 2, 15–47.Google Scholar
Wang, Y. et al. (2015), ‘General report’, in Wang, Y (ed.) China social security system development report 2015, Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press.Google Scholar
Wong, C. and Bird, R. (2008), China's fiscal system: a work in progress. In Brandt, Loren, and Thomas G. Rawski, (eds). China's Great Economic Transformation, Cambridge University Press, pp429–466.Google Scholar
Wong, C., Tang, K. and Lo, V. (2007), ‘Unaffordable healthcare amid phenomenal growth: the case of healthcare protection in reform China’, International Journal of Social Welfare. 16, 140–149.Google Scholar
Wong, L. and Ngok, K. (2006), ‘Social policy between plan and market: Xiagang (off-duty employment) and the policy of the re-employment service centres in China’, Social Policy & Administration, 40, 2, 158–173.Google Scholar
Xue, J. and Gao, W. (2012), ‘Informal employment in urban China: its size, features and earning disparity’, Comparative Economic & Social Systems, 6, 59–69.Google Scholar
Xie, Y. and Zhou, X. (2014), ‘Income inequality in today's China’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, 19, 6928–6933.Google Scholar
Zhang, L., Liu, S., Zhang, G. and Wu, S. (2015), ‘Internal migration and the health of the returned population: a nationally representative study of China’, BMC Public Health, 15, 1, 1–9.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Jiang supplementary material

Jiang supplementary material

Download Jiang supplementary material(File)
File 38.5 KB