Gender Inequalities in Labor Market Outcomes of Informal Caregivers near Retirement Age in Urban China

ABSTRACT

This study examines the impacts of unpaid family care on labor supply and earnings of women and men near retirement age in urban China. Using the 2011 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) and ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrumental variable approaches, it finds that grandchild care is negatively associated with both women's and men's labor force participation, while there are no effects for eldercare. For women caregivers, caring for grandchildren substantially lowers paid labor hours compared to noncaregivers. No significant relationships are found between eldercare and paid labor hours of women workers. For men workers, neither grandchild care nor eldercare is significantly associated with labor hours. The study also finds no statistically significant relationships between grandchild care and labor earnings for either women or men. Eldercare, however, is positively associated with the earnings of men workers.     

Retirement and Grandchild Care in Urban China

ABSTRACT

This study estimates the causal effect of retirement on grandchild care in urban China. It utilizes the exogenous variations in retirement status caused by China’s mandatory retirement-age policy. Drawing on the data of individuals close to retirement age from the 2011 and 2013 waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), the analysis shows a statistically significant increase of 29 percentage points in the provision of grandchild care after the transition to retirement for women and a 21 percentage-point increase for men. Moreover, the study finds that grandchild care is demand driven for men and supply driven for women. It also finds that women with lower education levels have a lower probability of retirement after reaching eligible age but are more likely to provide grandchild care after retirement.     

新型农村社会养老保险政策效果评估——收入、贫困、消费、主观福利和劳动供给

本文使用中国健康与养老追踪调查(CHARLS)数据,采用断点回归和双重差分识别策略,估计了"新农保"对农村老年人收入、贫困、消费、主观福利和劳动供给的影响。研究结果显示,"新农保"养老金收入显著提高了农村老年人的收入水平、减少了贫困的发生、提高了其主观福利,并在一定程度上促进了家庭消费和减少了老年人劳动供给。进一步的研究显示,健康状况较差的老年人受到的政策影响更大更显著,表明"新农保"的政策影响存在异质性。     

The Care Economy in Post-Reform China: Feminist Research on Unpaid and Paid Work and Well-Being

ABSTRACT

As China embarked on the path of economic and social reforms, social provisions from the Maoist era were dismantled, and care responsibilities shifted back from the state to the household. Rural–urban migration, a steep decline in fertility, and increasing longevity have led to changes in the age structure of the population both overall and by region. Using seven different surveys, the eleven contributions in this volume study the distributive consequences of post-reform care policies and the impact of unpaid care responsibilities on women’s and men’s opportunities and gender inequality. Overall, reduced care services have created care deficits for disadvantaged groups, including low-income rural elderly and children. The shifted care burden has also limited women’s ability to participate fully in the market economy and has contributed to rising gender inequalities in labor force participation, off-farm employment, earnings, pensions, and mental health outcomes.     

Gender,Work Burden,and Mental Health in Post-Reform China

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how total work burden, including paid work and unpaid care work, affects the mental health of prime-age, employed women and men in urban China. Based on the 2010 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), regression results indicate that total work burden is negatively related to the mental health of both men and women, consistent with the idea that additional work hours reduce time available for rest and leisure. Women have longer working hours and are more likely to be time poor than men, and this gender inequality in total work burden contributes to the gender gap in mental health. The relationships between the components of total work burden – paid and unpaid work – and mental health shed further light on the strength of gender norms and the barriers to redistribution of unpaid work from women to men necessary to reduce the gender gap in mental health.     

子女迁移背景下代际支持对农村老人生理健康的影响

利用相关跟踪调查数据,采用个体增长模型,结合农村实际状况,考察代际支持对农村老人生理健康的纵向影响。获得经济支持和日常照料对老人生理健康的发展有显著影响,提供经济支持和日常照料对老人生理健康的发展也有一定的显著影响,体现了代际支持对健康的选择效应和用进废退理论。在经济和健康的允许下,利他行为有利于老人生理健康的发展。"享清福"的观念有待思考。生活满意度和抑郁能够直接或通过代际支持间接地影响老人生理健康的发展。     

Gender Patterns of Eldercare in China

ABSTRACT

Using the baseline wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), collected from 2011 to 2012, this study finds that among those age 60 and above, women are 7.6 percent more likely than men to have care needs and 29.3 percent more likely than men to have unmet needs; and that most of the gender gap in unmet needs is explained by the existence and health status of a spouse. Further analysis reveals a sharp gender division in patterns of family care in China. While men are more likely to receive care from their wives, women are primarily cared for by their children. Marital status and spouse health also affect provision of care, with infirm women who have healthy husbands less likely to receive care than infirm men with healthy wives. The findings have important implications for designing gender-sensitive policies in eldercare.     

OLD‐AGE PENSION AND EXTENDED FAMILIES: HOW IS ADULT CHILDREN'S INTERNAL MIGRATION AFFECTED?

This article makes use of the most recent social pension reform in rural China to examine whether receipt of the pension payment equips adult children of pensioners to migrate. Employing a regression discontinuity (hereafter RD) design to a primary longitudinal survey, this article overcomes challenges in the literature that households eligible for pension payment might be systematically different from ineligible households and that it is difficult to separate the effect of pension from that of age or cohort heterogeneity. Around the pension eligibility age cutoff, results reveal large and significant increase among adult sons (but not daughters) to migrate out of their home county. Meanwhile, adult children are more likely to migrate out if their parents are healthy. Our Fuzzy RD estimations survive a standard set of key placebo tests and robustness checks. (JEL H55, I38 J14, J22)     

Living arrangements of the elderly in China: evidence from the CHARLS national baseline

Declining fertility in China has raised concerns about elderly support, especially when public support is inadequate. Using rich information from the nationally representative China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) baseline survey, we describe the patterns of current living arrangements of the Chinese elderly and investigate their determinants and correlation with intergenerational transfers. We find that roughly 41% of Chinese aged 60 and over live with an adult child; living with a male adult child being strongly preferred. However another 34% have an adult child living in the same immediate neighborhood and 14% in the same county; only 5% have an adult child with none of them living in the same county. At the same time, a large fraction of the elderly, 45% in our sample, live alone or with only a spouse. In general, women, those from western provinces, and those from rural areas are more likely to live with or close to their adult children than their corresponding counterparts, but different types of intergenerational transfers play a supplementary role in the unequal distribution of living arrangements. Among non-co-resident children, those living close by visit their parents more frequently and have more communications by other means. In contrast, children who live farther away are more likely to send financial and in-kind transfers and send larger amounts.     

Gender,Low-Paid Status,and Time Poverty in Urban China

ABSTRACT

Using synthetic data from the 2008 China Time Use Survey (CTUS) and the 2008 China Household Income Project (CHIP), this study estimates time-poverty rates and compares the profiles of time-poor men and women workers in urban China. In line with previous research, time poverty is defined as a lack of enough time for rest and leisure. Three time-poverty measures are adopted. By all three measures, women paid workers and low-paid workers account for a disproportionate share of the time poor. Regression analysis further shows that, other things being equal, workers who are women, low-paid, married, and who live with children or the elderly in counties with higher overtime rates and lower minimum wage standards are more likely to be time poor. Simulations indicate that enforcing working time regulations and raising minimum wage standards could be effective for reducing time poverty.     

Stuck in the Middle: Off-Farm Employment and Caregiving Among Middle-Aged Rural Chinese

ABSTRACT

Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2011–12 baseline data, this contribution explores to what extent taking care of grandchildren and frail parents influences rural middle-aged Chinese adults’ off-farm employment. The findings show that, conditional on socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, taking care of grandchildren has a negative effect on rural middle-aged men's and women's off-farm job participation and hours worked. Caregiving for parents does not have the same negative effects on off-farm employment and hours worked. Furthermore, the study finds that annual earnings are also negatively affected by caregiving responsibilities, especially for women and men taking care of grandchildren.     

Children's Migration Decisions and Elderly Support in China: Evidences from CHARLS Pilot Data

The purpose of this paper is to explain the determinants of migration in China with special concern for elderly support based on evidences from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) pilot data. We find parents’ needs for care significantly affect adult children’s participation in migrant labor market. Joint family decisions have also been made among adult siblings as far as elderly support is concerned. Different patterns of migrant labor force participation in Zhejiang and Gansu provinces largely reflect the differences between their respective migrant labor markets. Understanding of these new patterns of China’s internal migration helps policy makers in China and other developing counties formulate effective social policies, and consequently, a more appropriate urbanization path.     

The health implications of social pensions: Evidence from China's new rural pension scheme

This paper estimates the causal effect of income on health outcomes of the elderly and investigates underlying mechanisms by exploiting an income change induced by the launch of China's New Rural Pension scheme (NRPS). Using this policy experiment, we address the endogeneity of pension income by applying a fixed-effect model with instrumental variable correction. The results reveal that pension enrollment and income from the NRPS both have had a significant beneficial impact on objective measures of physical health and cognitive function of the rural elderly. Pension recipients respond to the newly acquired pension income in multiple ways: improved nutrition intake, better accessibility to health care, increased informal care, increased leisure activities, and better self-perceived relative economic situation. These in turn act as channels from pension income to health outcomes of the Chinese rural elderly.     

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)     

Why do Households Leave Money on the Table? The Case of Subsidized Pension Products

Abstract

Many individuals only save money in their savings account for their old-age provision rather than investing in more profitable asset classes. That is despite the existence of subsidized pension products, for which smallest contributions can be made monthly, which guarantee the capital preservation, and which offer higher expected returns than saving money in bank deposits. We investigate the determinants that affect individuals’ decision to leave money on the table by not investing in subsidized pension products. Our results show that financial literacy and financial advice are positively related to holding such pension products. In that, our results emphasize the role of financial literacy and financial advisors for sound financial decision-making in increasingly complex financial markets.     

家庭子女的教育投入与亲代的养老回报——来自河北农村的调查发现

利用2008年河北农村家庭生命周期与代际关系调查数据,分析当前河北农村60岁及以上老年人子女的教育投入与老年人获取的来自子女的养老回报的影响因素。河北农村老年人子女的受教育程度多为小学、初中水平,且存在性别、年龄别和地区差异。来自子女教育投入的养老回报主要体现在经济支持方面,子女受教育程度越高,对父母的经济支持越大。父母对子女的教育投入越多得到的回报越高,体现了家庭中亲子抚养与赡养关系具有一定的互惠交换特征。     

社会保障能够替代土地保障吗——基于新农保对土地租出意愿租金的影响研究

基于三轮（2011年、2013年和2015年）的全国微观追踪调查数据（CHARLS），本文通过分析新农保的实施对农户土地流转行为和意愿租金的影响，来考察社会保障是否存在着对土地保障的替代效应，并进一步基于农户对土地的依赖程度来分析替代效应的异质型特征。结果表明，村庄实施新农保促使村庄内土地依赖程度超过平均水平的农户转出土地的意愿租金下降180%；促使村庄内处于土地依赖程度前30%的农户转出土地的意愿租金下降149%；促使村庄内处于土地依赖程度后30%的农户转出土地的意愿租金上升173%。总的来说，社会保障对于土地保障的替代效应主要作用于高土地依赖型的农户。     

私人代际转移动机研究*——基于CHARLS的实证分析

经济学家对代际的物质和时间转移的兴趣引发了人们对转移动机的研究与思考。传统的解释有两种：利他主义与交换互惠。本文利用CHARLS数据，对中国的代际转移动机进行实证研究，发现受传统文化的影响，中国的代际转移更多地表现出利他主义倾向，同时示范效应也有所体现，即个体在照顾父母的同时也在教育自己的孩子赡养父母，以期退休后得到子女的照顾。相对西方国家来说，我国养老金体系的压力较小。但随着老龄化的加剧和生育率的下降，为了缓解未来独生子女赡养双方父母的压力，应当在减少挤出私人代际转移的基础上完善社会保障体系，提高我国老年人口的生活质量。     

The Influence of Patriarchal Norms,Institutions, and Household Composition on Women's Employment in Twenty-Eight Muslim-Majority Countries

ABSTRACT

The low level of women's employment in Muslim-majority countries is often explained by patriarchy, while disregarding variation among and within these countries. Using a new theoretical framework, this study translates patriarchy as a concept to macro- and micro-level explanations of employment. It formulates and tests hypotheses for societal norms and institutions and household composition, including how the latter's effects are context dependent. The study analyzes data from surveys (1997–2008) for twenty-eight countries, 383 districts, and 250,410 women and finds that men's public dominance over women decreases women's employment. Presence of – in particular non-foster – children and elderly people at home withholds women from labor market entrance. However, presence of other women in the household stimulates labor market entrance. Absence of a partner, male household head, or other adult men pushes women into the labor market, and thus, for example, male breadwinners' absence has a weaker negative effect in contexts of male public dominance.     

新农保养老金政策效果评估——基于老年人生活幸福感的实证研究

作为一项重要的社会保障政策,新农保养老金的效果到底如何,目前学术界还没有统一的评估结论。本文基于2016年中国家庭追踪调查（CFPS）数据,使用断点回归设计的方法,利用老年人幸福感指标对新型农村社会养老保险的政策效果进行了评估。本文从老年人对生活的满意度和自信心两个维度来衡量幸福感,发现领取养老金对其生活满意度的影响尚不显著,但提升了其对未来生活的信心。异质性分析发现东部地区和中高收入地位的老年人在领取新农保养老金后生活幸福感提升较为显著,但现实中挤出效应的影响更大。最后,作为社会支持的新农保与传统的“养儿防老”观念存在一定的替代效应。