Effects And Policy Orientation Of Delaying Retirement Age

With the development of modern civilized society, especially the rapid economicdevelopment, the medical technology is advancing, and the living quality of people isimproving, so the life expectancy has also been extended year after year. The elderlypopulation gradually makes a large proportion of the total population, therefore, all thedeveloped countries and most developing countries have stepped into the aging society.The aging of population is not simply a sign of modern civilized social progress, butalso a great challenge of the21st century, and nowadays it is becoming a globalstrategic social problem. Many developed countries step into the aging society becauseof their advanced economy. On the contrary, as a developing country, though at theinitial stage of socialist development with relatively weak economic strength, China hasalso become an aging society, facing more tough aging problems. In a word, the agingpopulation is undoubtedly a hot potato in China’s economic development, makingtremendous impact on Chinese endowment insurance construction.In the face of increasing aging population, the guarantee of the basic living securityfor elderly population has become a tough nut to crack in China. What’s more, thegrowing aging problems have also become a great challenge for the existing Chineseretirement system. As the growing proportion of elderly population, it will directly leadto the soar of retirement pay, putting enormous strains on the payment of pensions.Therefore, delaying retirement age will play a big role of increasing fiscal revenue andcutting down expenditure, solving the problem of imbalanced income and expenses ofpension insurance fund to some extent, and cushioning the impact of aging populationon the elderly security system.The thesis is made up of five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction part,making a introduction to the research background and significance, the literature reviewof delaying retirement age at home and abroad, as well as research method andinnovation of the thesis. The second chapter is about the historical evolution of Chineseretirement system up to now. Though the introduction of the implementation ofretirement system, it can be concluded that the current stipulation of retirement agecan not adapt to Chinese national situation. In the third chapter, the author firstlyanalyze the influencing factors of retirement age. Then the discussion of positive andnegative effects of delaying retirement age is made. Though the negative side isunavoidable, in the long run it still makes positive effect to the social and economic development, and the reform of retirement age should be carried out. The fourth chaptermakes case analysis of retirement age reform from some representative countries. It canbe seen that delaying retirement age has already become a reform trend, regarded as aneffective measure to reduce the payment pressure of pension. The foreignimplementation programs of delaying retirement age can be an important reference toChinese retirement system reform. In the fifth chapter, based on the principles ofretirement age reform, a tentative reform scheme of raising the retirement age level inChina is discussed. To be specific, the feasible measures include: delaying the femaleretirement age to be identical with male retirement age, building flexible retirementsystem, establishing an incentive pension payment mechanism relating to employmenttime, perfecting early retirement policies, abolishing dual-track system of pension,recreating the social value of elderly population. In addition, some practical measures todeal with the short-run negative sides of delaying retirement age are also introduced inthis part. The conclusion chapter of the thesis is the summary of the thesis. The authoronce again strengthens the necessity of legal construction of Chinese retirement system,and points out that the retirement age level setting will influence a lot on theimplementation of retirement age adjustment scheme.As the aging problem is growing more serious nowadays in China, the lack ofpension will be also greater than ever. The positive effects of delaying retirement agecan effectively respond to the pension fund crisis, and become an inevitable trend ofretirement system reform. Based on the theoretical introduction and case analysiscombined with Chinese national conditions, the feasible scheme of delaying retirementage is discussed in the thesis. Furthermore, the author also offers some practical andimplementable measures to promote Chinese social and economic development.