Transformations  in
Business & Economics

PENSION FUNDING AND ELDERLY'S HEALTH: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA'S SURVEY DATA
Peijin Li, Kai Zhu, Xuguang Han, Sibo Chen

ABSTRACT: In a phase of aging, pension lending is an important way to obtain financial support after retirement. The goal and destination of pension funding is to improve the well-being of the elderly including health status. Although much has focused on the public pension (Pillar I) and its factors, research based on the complete three pillars according to the World Bank and its external influence on the health status is relatively rare. In this paper, we promote the scale, structure and efficiency measurement of the three pillars using the survey data from CHFS and CHARLS, to systematically explore the effects of pension lending on the elderly's health. Faced with the lack of data, a special survey is implemented to present the scale of the specific three pillars. Results show that, the overall growth trend of pension assets in China is obvious. The scale of all three pillars is on the rise year by year, with the state and society pay both increases in the scale and efficiency of the public (Pillar I) and the personal pension (Pillar III) are beneficial for the elderly's health, but of the occupational pension (Pillar II) is not significant. As for the structure, risky pension assets can positively promote the elderly's health, while effect of the risk-free pension assets is not significant. Heterogeneity analysis shows that, impact on the elderly aged of 60-69, with low education, and in the eastern region is more significant, while the impact of risky assets tends to be greater. Our study roundly confirmed the various impacts on elderly's health within the framework of the three-pillar pension system, meanwhile revealing weaknesses of the pension system for follow-up policy focus.

KEYWORDS:  pension lending, Elderly's health, the three-pillar pension system, heterogeneity.

JEL classification:  D13, G23, H55, I1, J32