Rural Pension System and Farmers' Participation in Residents' Social Insurance

TL;DR

This paper analyzes China's rural pension system, identifying key factors affecting farmers' participation and suggesting improvements to enhance social insurance coverage amid demographic changes.

Contribution

It provides an empirical analysis of factors influencing farmers' pension participation and highlights the role of internet use and policy strategies for system improvement.

Findings

Farmers' participation is affected by gender, age, health, and financial status.

Internet use can increase enrollment in rural pension insurance.

Current system faces low protection levels and management challenges.

Abstract

As the ageing population and childlessness are increasing in rural China, social pensions will become the mainstream choice for farmers, and the level of social pensions must be supported by better social insurance. The paper compares the history of rural pension insurance system, outlines the current situation and problems, analyses China Family Panel Studies data and explores the key factors influencing farmers' participation through an empirical approach. The paper shows that residents' social pension insurance is facing problems in the rural areas such as low level of protection and weak management capacity, which have contributed to the under-insured rate, and finds that there is a significant impact on farmers' participation in insurance from personal characteristics factors such as gender, age, health and (family) financial factors such as savings, personal income, intergenerational mobility of funds. And use of the Internet can help farmers enroll in pension insurance. The paper argues for the need to continue to implement the rural revitalisation strategy, with the government as the lead and the market as the support, in a concerted effort to improve the protection and popularity of rural pension insurance.