Why is Inequality Higher Among the Old? Evidence from China

ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) Working Paper No. 2019/10

59 Pages Posted: 17 Aug 2019

See all articles by Katja Hanewald

Katja Hanewald

UNSW Sydney - School of Risk & Actuarial Studies and ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR)

Ruo Jia

Department of Risk Management and Insurance, School of Economics, Peking University

Zining Liu

Peking University-Department of Risk Management and Insurance

Date Written: August 13, 2019

Abstract

This paper studies income inequality in old age and its development over the life cycle. We develop a theoretical framework and a new empirical method to show that income is more unequally distributed in old age than in working age. We combine the regression-based inequality decomposition method and the three-step mediating effect test to analyze the transmission of income inequality from initial socioeconomic differences to income inequality in old age. Our study is based on a panel of over 4,000 old households from the China Health and Nutrition Survey during 1991-2015. We find that the urban-rural gap and educational inequality are the primary causes of old-age income inequality. The effect of the urban-rural gap is partially mediated by educational inequality. Inequality accumulates with age and is reinforced in old age by the Chinese public pension system, which is fragmented by occupational sector.

Keywords: Inequality, Decomposition, Urban-rural gap, Pensions, China

JEL Classification: H55, J26, O15, P36

Suggested Citation

Hanewald, Katja and Jia, Ruo and Liu, Zining, Why is Inequality Higher Among the Old? Evidence from China (August 13, 2019). ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) Working Paper No. 2019/10, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3436586

Katja Hanewald

UNSW Sydney - School of Risk & Actuarial Studies and ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) ( email )

School of Risk & Actuarial Studies
UNSW Sydney
Sydney, New South Wales NSW 2052
Australia

Ruo Jia (Contact Author)

Department of Risk Management and Insurance, School of Economics, Peking University ( email )

Yiheyuan Rd. 5
Haidian
Beijing, 100871
China

Zining Liu

Peking University-Department of Risk Management and Insurance ( email )

Beijing
China

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