SMU SOE Seminar (Apr 20, 2018): The Power of Social Pensions

This paper comprehensively examines the impacts of social pensions on people of different ages. Utilizing the county-by-county rollout of China’s New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS), we find that among age-eligible people, the pension scheme leads to higher household income and food expenditure, less farm work, better health, and lower mortality. In addition, the NRPS shifts age-ineligible adults from farm to non-farm work but does not significantly affect their income, expenditure or health. Finally, among younger children, the NRPS increases their pocket money receipts, adds to the time their grandparents cared for them, improves their health and their attendance in school.