ObjectivesThis study aimed to examine the three-way interaction between widowhood, social ties, and gender and its effects on older adults’ mental health, including depressive symptoms and life satisfaction, in the context of China.MethodsParticipants were 7,601 Chinese older adults. Their social network was divided between family and friendship ties, and their mental health was measured by depressive symptoms and life satisfaction. Linear regression was employed to analyze the associations between widowhood, social networks, and mental health, as well as to explore the moderating effect of gender.ResultsWidowhood is associated with more depressive symptoms, but not with life satisfaction, while family and friendship ties are associated with less depressive symptoms and greater life satisfaction. Furthermore, the lack of family ties is associated with more depressive symptoms for widowed men compared to married older men, while it is associated with lower life satisfaction for widowed women compared to married older women.ConclusionFamily ties are the most important social support resource for Chinese older adults, especially for the widowed group. The vulnerability of older widowed men who lack family ties in China deserves public concern and attention.

In this paper, we identify product market competition as a driver of privatization. Using product market shocks caused by trade liberalization of China, which has the world’s largest state sector, we find that subjecting state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to higher competition leads to an increase in private ownership. This response is strengthened when SOEs operate in industries with large technology or productivity gaps from those in the frontier economies or when SOEs impose large fiscal burdens on local governments. Our findings are consistent with politicians’ incentives to boost economic growth for better career development and to shed burdens when rents decrease. This paper was accepted by Tomasz Piskorski, finance. Funding: C. Lin acknowledges financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72192841]. Q. Hu acknowledges financial support from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and the Renmin University of China [Grant 21XNF002]. W. Li acknowledges financial support from the Major Project of the Ministry of Education [Grant 22JZD007] and the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72132002]. L. Wei acknowledges financial support from the Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee [Grant 13501619]. Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4847 .

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