Pension-induced labor supply responses of rural elderly in China: Gender and income heterogeneity

This study investigates how China’s New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS) affects the welfare and labor supply of rural elders, with emphasis on gender and household income. Exploiting pension coverage and household income as core welfare indicators, we find that NRPS significantly raises both, yet the gains are uneven: women — especially in households with multiple beneficiaries — receive a smaller share of the cash. Labor-market responses differ sharply by gender and income: pension receipt reduces farm work among older women, whereas adults aged 45–59 who have not yet claimed benefits increase off-farm hours. The steepest agricultural labor withdrawals occur in poor households and among older women. Younger men and women already prefer non-agricultural jobs, and the pension accelerates this shift only for the not-yet-beneficiary group. These results show that while NRPS improves overall income security, it also widens pre-existing gender and income disparities, calling for policy designs that adjust transfers to household composition and provide targeted support for female and low-income elders transitioning out of agriculture.