“老有所养”能促进农村中老年人的身心健康吗——基于社会养老保险的视角

Does"providing for the elderly"promote the physical and mental health of the elderly in rural areas:based on the perspective of social pension insurance

基于2013—2018年中国健康与养老追踪调查数据,采用双向固定效应模型和工具变量法实证检验了城乡居民养老保险对农村中老年人生理健康和精神健康的影响。研究发现,城乡居民养老保险对农村中老年人的健康效应,主要体现在精神健康的保障上,对生理健康的作用有限。在“心理保险”和“经济保险”效应下,城乡居民养老保险对缴费人群和领取养老金人群的精神健康均产生积极效应,其中对领取人群的抑郁缓解效果更强。机制分析发现,尽管城乡居民养老保险会通过提高子女异地生活的概率、减少子女探望关怀对农村中老年人的精神健康产生不利影响,但还会通过增加食物支出、子女转移支付及劳动供给改善其精神健康。据此,建议完善缴费激励机制,推进家庭养老支持政策,发展社区养老互助模式,充分发挥城乡居民养老保险在保障居民健康福祉的积极作用。

Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study from 2013 to 2018,this paper applies the two-way fixed effects model and the instrumental variable method to empirically examine the causal effects of basic pension insurance for urban and rural residents on the physical and mental health of middle-aged and elderly individuals in rural areas.The study finds that the health effect of pension insurance scheme on rural middle-aged and elderly individuals is mainly reflected in the protection of mental health,but the impact on physical health is limited.Based on the dual effect of"psychological insurance"and"economic insurance"effects,the pension insurance has a positive effect on the mental health of both the contributory and the pensioners,and the depression relief effect is stronger among the pensioners.The mechanism analysis shows that the pension insurance for urban and rural residents has a negative impact on the mental health of the elderly in rural areas by increasing the probability of their children living in different places and reducing their children's visiting and spiritual comfort,but it also improves their mental health by increasing their food expenditure,transfer payment from adult children and labor supply.Based on the conclusions,it is suggested to improve the payment incentive mechanism,promote the family old-age support policy,and develop the community old-age mutual assistance model,so as to give full play to the positive role of the pension insurance scheme on ensuring the health and well-being of residents.