Richer and Healthier? Social Pensions and Unhealthy Consumption Behavior in China
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4360892 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Xiaobing Wang (0000-0002-5491-7418), Xinyuan Lei (0000-0001-5049-6188), Yanjun Ren (0000-0002-8384-8925), Jianyu Yu (0000-0002-2425-0253) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 381-422 |
| Publication date | 2024-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Economic Development and Cultural Change (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-0079 • E-ISSN: 1539-2988 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/727535 |
| OpenAlex | W4386161167 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 44 |
Based on a life-course utility model that incorporates healthy and unhealthy, short-run and long-run consumption behavior of consumers, this study examines the unintended impact of social pensions on the smoking behaviors of the rural elderly and its underlying channels. Using China’s New Rural Pension Scheme as a policy experiment, our empirical identification rests on nonparametric fuzzy regression discontinuity to address the endogeneity problem of receiving a pension. Overall, the results indicate that receiving a pension decreases the probability of smoking and the number of cigarettes smoked. We demonstrate that the most important channel is the increase in income following the pension transfer, which makes consumers value future utility more, instead of substituting smoking with food, which is healthier. The positive health impact of social pensions is more salient for elderly individuals who are relatively poor or who have a longer life expectancy
China · Consumption (sociology) · Download · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Financial Literacy, Pension, Retirement Analysis · Global Health Care Issues · Law · Psychology · Retirement, Disability, and Employment
The Consumption Response to Income Changes
The health implications of social pensions
Robust Data-Driven Inference in the Regression-Discontinuity Design
Manipulation of the running variable in the regression discontinuity design
Regression discontinuity designs
Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics
The Elderly and Old Age Support in Rural China
Child Health and Household Resources in South Africa
Income and Health Spending
Nutrition quality of food purchases varies by household income
Tobacco control and Healthy China 2030
Living arrangements of the elderly in China
The Impact of China's New Rural Pension Program on Elderly Labor, Grandchild Care, and Old-Age Support
The heterogeneous impact of pension income on elderly living arrangements
Early-life deprivation and health outcomes in adulthood
Social Security Benefits, Consumption Expenditure, and the Life Cycle Hypothesis
The Effect of Pension Income on Land Transfers
Advances in subjective well-being research
The impact of pensions on health and wellbeing in rural South Africa
The Life-Cycle Model of Consumption and Saving
Measuring Subjective Wellbeing
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |