Analyzing the Heterogeneous Impact of Rural Social Pension on Elderly People’s Health in China from the Perspective of Collectivist Household Decision-Making

Abstract

Background: This study examines the effect of rural social pension policies on elderly people’s health from the perspective of collectivist household decision-making. It aims to explain the heterogeneous outcomes that rural social pension policies have for elderly people in different households, arguing that there is a conflict between the individualism of China’s rural pension scheme design and the collectivism of farmers’ decision-making. Methods: To uncover the mechanism causing pension policies’ disparate effects, we conducted an empirical test using survey data from China Family Panel Studies. More specifically, we compared the impact of family structure and family members’ pension payments on elderly pensioner’s health. Results: The results showed that younger family members’ pension payments offset the income effect of elderly family members’ pension payouts, undermining younger family members’ ability to economically support their aging parents. This weakens the health-promoting effect of pension payouts. Conclusions: Thus, China’s wide-reaching rural social pension policy has heterogeneous effects on elderly people’s health due to differing household family structures. This insight can help to improve pension policy design and evaluation, providing the foundation for more equitable and long-term social pension systems.