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The purpose of this paper is to examine the new rural social pension program’s effect on household consumption in rural China.

The paper employs field data in Hebei Province and comprehensively applies the ordinary least squares regression model and the difference-in-difference matching method.

The findings show that participation in the Program may not obviously increase household consumption, rather it significantly inhibits the marginal propensity of young families’ consumption temporarily without an apparent impact on participating households’ consumption.

In addition to maintain the stability of the basic system framework of the new rural social pension program and preserve or increase the value of the fund under the Program, dynamic adjustments to pension levels should be made as and when appropriate.

The study provides a new empirical evidence for the relationship between the new rural social pension program and consumption and gives insight into potential modifications and improvements to the Program.

This paper aims to describe China's need for old‐age pension coverage in its rural areas, to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the new rural pension system currently being implemented, and to suggest some needed reforms.

This paper's analysis is based largely on evidence from Chinese government documents, newspaper reports, and research reports including those discussing related programs in rural areas of other developing countries. This evidence is supplemented with a small number of interviews with government officials, Chinese academics, and farmers living in rural China.

China has recently started a major effort to bring old‐age pension coverage to rural China. While it is too early to know how successful this effort will be, there are some structural issues that should be addressed. The paper's major conclusion is that the current funded accounts component needs to be supplemented with a modest social pension scheme.

To date next to nothing has been published for an academic audience about this major new and first ever countrywide old‐age pension program for rural China. If successful, this program has the potential to stimulate efforts in many other developing nations around the world to provide pension coverage in rural areas. The paper analyzes the program, uncovers some serious limitations, and proposes changes to deal with those limitations.

The need for a universal rural pension system has been heightened by demographic changes in rural China, including the rapid aging of the nation’s rural population and a dramatic decline in fertility. In response to these changes, China’s Government introduced the New Rural Social Pension Program (NRSPP) in 2009, a voluntary and highly subsidized pension scheme. The purpose of this paper is to assess the participation of rural farmers in the NRSPP. Furthermore, the authors examine whether the NRSPP affects the labor supply of the elderly population in China.

This paper uses household-level data from a sample of 2,020 households originating from a survey conducted by the authors in five provinces, 25 counties, and 101 villages in rural China. Using a probit model and conducting correlation analysis, the authors demonstrate the factors affecting the participation and the impact of NRSPP on labor supply of the rural elderly.

The results show there are several factors that are correlated with participation, such as specific policy variant in force in the respective household's province, the size of the pension payout from government, the age of sample individuals, and the value of household durable assets. Specifically, different characteristics of NRSPP policy implementation increase participation in China’s social pension program. The results suggest that the introduction of the NRSPP has not affected the labor supply of the rural elderly, in general, although it has reduced participation for the elderly who were in poor health.

Several previous studies have covered the NRSPP. However, all previous studies were based on case studies or just focused on a small region, and for this reason the results cannot reflect the populations and heterogeneity of rural areas. Therefore, a data set with a large sample size is used in this paper to provide a new perspective to fully understand the participation of NRSPP and its impacts on rural households. This paper will make an update contribution to the literature in the area of pension programs in China.

China's New Rural Pension Program (NRPP) has been implemented for a decade, but the factors that facilitate rural residents' participation have received little attention. This study aims to investigate whether financial literacy has an influence on rural residents' behavior of participation in the NRPP. In particular, this study further verifies if high financial literacy is important and whether financial education can enhance the impact of financial literacy on current, long-term and dynamic pension decisions of rural households.

This study investigates the impact of financial literacy on rural residents' participation in China's NRPP using the China Household Financial Survey (CHFS) Data of 2015 and 2017. This study constructs an analytical framework for current, long-term and dynamic impacts and comprehensively analyzes the value of financial literacy in the decision making of the NRPP. This study uses the instrumental variable method to solve the possible endogeneity problem. In addition, the authors also demonstrate the positive role of high financial literacy in household pension decisions. Further analysis reveals gender and regional heterogeneity in the impact of financial literacy on pension decisions. The moderating effect model explores whether financial education has a significant moderating effect on financial literacy and pension decision making of the NRPP.

Financial literacy can improve the participation behavior of households in rural areas (dynamic effect) and promote their current and long-term participation in the NRPP, choosing a higher pension contribution level in the NRPP. However, financial literacy has no significant effect on the change in the contribution amount of the NRPP. Further research finds that high financial literacy has comparative advantages in household pension decision making in rural areas. There are gender and regional differences in the impact of financial literacy on pension decisions. In addition, effective financial literacy education enhances the current, long-term and dynamic impacts of residents' financial literacy on NRPP participation and pension contributions.

This study comprehensively considers the impact of financial literacy on pension decision making behavior from three aspects: current, long-term and dynamic, making up for the dearth in the existing literature that only focuses on the impact of financial literacy on current financial behaviors and bridging the gap between the theoretical framework and experimental results. Our study proposes new policy implications: (1) Governments and financial institutions should pay attention to financial literacy and education levels in rural areas and carry out financial education and training programs to increase social welfare levels by increasing rural residents' participation and pension contribution. (2) The community can strengthen the policy advocacy of the NRPP and make people develop a stronger sense of trust toward it. The government can also subsidize individual accounts through financial support.

This study comprehensively considers the impact of financial literacy on pension decision-making behavior from three aspects: current, long-term and dynamic, making up for the dearth in the existing literature that only focuses on the impact of financial literacy on current financial behaviors and bridging the gap between the theoretical framework and experimental results. Our study proposes new policy implications: (1) Governments and financial institutions should pay attention to financial literacy and education levels in rural areas and carry out financial education and training programs to increase social welfare levels by increasing rural residents' participation and pension contribution. (2) The community can strengthen the policy advocacy of the NRPP and make people develop a stronger sense of trust toward it. The government can also subsidize individual accounts through financial support.

This paper first reviews the history of social insurance policy and coverage in urban China, documenting the evolution in the coverage of pensions, medical and unemployment insurance for both local residents and migrants, and highlighting obstacles to expanding coverage. The paper then uses two waves of the China Urban Labor Survey, conducted in 2005 and 2010, to examine the correlates of social insurance participation before and after implementation of the 2008 Labor Contract Law. A higher labor tax wedge is associated with a lower probability that local employed residents participate in social insurance programs, but is not associated with participation of wage-earning migrants, who are more likely to be dissuaded by fragmentation of the social insurance system. The existing gender gap in social insurance coverage is explained by differences in coverage across industrial sectors and firm ownership classes in which men and women work.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the substitute between social old-age insurance and adult children in providing old-age support, and estimate the effects of China’s old rural pension program (ORPP) on sex ratio.

Using data from China’s 2005 inter-census population survey and China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, this paper estimates the effects of children on rural parents’ take-up of pension program and the effects of having access to pension on old parents’ choice of resource for future old-age support. The effects of China’s ORPP on sex ratio are estimated using difference-in-differences identification strategy.

Peasants having sons are less likely to participate in pension program and each additional son and daughter significantly decreases their likelihood of participation. Moreover, the effect of sons is much larger than that of daughters. Peasants having access to pension are less likely to rely on their children for old-age support. The implementation of the ORPP moderately decreased sex ratio.

Implementing pension program in China’s rural area will probably affect rural people’s fertility behavior and thus be helpful in correcting sex ratio bias.

This paper first estimates the effects of having access to pension on old parents’ choices of providers of old-age support, and estimates the causal effect of rural pension on sex ratio using standard DID strategy.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

This paper surveys the social security system in several Latin American countries. Specifically, the cases of Bolivia and Brazil are documented in order to determine if the Chilean model is a viable one in the Latin America and Caribbean region. An institutional approach suggests that while there has been a marked interest in tailoring pension funds a la Chile, policy makers of the region must be aware of the similarities and differences in the politico‐social‐economic environment. The macroeconomic transformation undertaken in Chile was a unique one obeying to specific conditions of time and process. It is indicated, however, that even in the case of developed nations, some features of the Chilean model may be very appealing as well.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of post-Soviet and demographic challenges faced by the government in Moldova that have posed as challenges to reform of the healthcare system. Since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Moldova has undergone significant challenges and reforms throughout the society. Healthcare has been no exception. Changes in family structures due to migration, a decreased birthrate, and an aging population have placed strain on the healthcare system which is working to both modernize and provide specialized care. Legislation has helped to streamline and reform the healthcare system but systemic challenges are still faced by at-risk populations including the elderly, women, and rural populations.

Information presented in this paper is based on a review of independent research, United Nations and government reports.

Findings show that progress has been made through legislative reform, new government programming, and most recently volunteer/nonprofit involvement in healthcare reform. Currently, the government is working to establish holistic patient centered care and to bridge the healthcare divide between rural and urban populations. Healthcare reforms include basic universal health care services and family support programming. Additionally, there has been a renewed emphasis on how environmental factors, like housing and nutrition, interact with health quality.

Moldova faces an increasing challenge of caring for elderly populations at the family and societal level due to the increased number of elderly, shifts in family structures, and international migration for employment. A discussion of the developing role of nonprofit and nongovernment organizations is included.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS) on the private transfer behavior of the non-co-resident adult children to their elderly parents in rural China, and hence address the income redistribution effectiveness of public program for the elderly in rural China.

Pooled data from two waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study and the combination of regression discontinuity design and difference in difference method are used to perform the analysis.

No evidence is found that pension payment from NRPS program does significantly crowd out the economic support from the adult children to their elder parents. The heterogeneous effects at different income percentile indicate that pension payment significantly increases the probability of receiving gross transfers and likelihood of the net transfer being positive for those elderly individuals with low income; in particular, the distinctive “family binding” arrangement may dramatically contribute to increasing the probability of receiving private transfers for the pension recipients.

The empirical findings would have far-reaching implications for the efficacy of public transfer or re-distributive programs such as NRPS; for the rural elderly, in particular, the unique “family binding” mechanism under the NRPS program may have positive welfare effects on the intended beneficiaries. Furthermore, an understanding of the inter-linkage between informal arrangements of elderly support and social re-distributive program provides further insight into the design of social security systems targeted to the vulnerable group in developing countries.