A Comparative Research On Happiness Determinants Of Urban And Rural Elderly In China

After analysis of subjective wellbeing entered into the discipline of economics,documents and literatures on subjective wellbeing are more plentiful and diverse because of the constant exploration by academics.However,the existed research is far from enough,which provides us large space for further exploration.In order to promote the stability and development of China,from the perspective of fundamental pension insurance and medical insurance as well as their relationship with children and based on data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study,this paper analyzes and researches comparatively on the subjective wellbeing determinants of those younger elderly and elder elderly in urban and rural areas.With descriptive analysis and empirical analysis,this paper comparatively analyzes the influence of fundamental pension insurance,fundamental medical insurance and parent-child relationship on subjective wellbeing of China younger elderly and elder elderly in urban and rural areas.Meanwhile,this paper also makes a detailed comparison of urban and rural population based on age stratification.Finally,compared those who had no fundamental pension or medical insurance with those who were fully protected by basic social security,this paper explores the effects of their children's economic and spiritual support in promoting their subjective wellbeing.Through descriptive analysis,this paper found that the average subjective wellbeing of urban younger elderly and elder elderly was higher than that of rural ones;furthermore,the average subjective wellbeing of urban and rural respondents who have found mental pension insurance or basic medical insurance was higher than those without these insurances.Through empirical analysis,in general,this paper finds that economic determinants,physical health status,participation in the fundamental welfare system as well as communication and companion from non-cohabitant children have positive impacts on improving subjective wellbeing of our respondents both in rural and urban areas.However,the more the children live together with them,the lower the life satisfaction of respondents in urban and rural areas.Therefore,the main research conclusions of this paper are: 1)apart from income,wealth and other economical influencing factors,social welfare system and intergenerational relations including the economic support,communication and living arrangements of children have important impacts on the happiness of urban and rural middle-aged and elderly residents.Such kind of influences is different between towns and villages.2)In term of social welfare system,social pension and medical insurance can significantly increase the happiness of urban and rural residents;the impact of medical insurance on urban and rural middle-aged residents is stronger than that on urban and rural elderly residents.Meanwhile,social pension insurance is only significantly and positively correlated with happiness of rural and urban elderly residents.3)In term of intergenerational relations,the number of cohabiting children is significantly and negatively linked with the subjective wellbeing of urban and rural middle-aged and elderly people.Communication with non-cohabiting children can significantly increase happiness of urban and rural middle-aged and elderly people.However,the economic transfer from non-cohabiting children only can affect the happiness of rural middle-aged and elderly people.Such positive effect of economic transfer on happiness does not exist among urban residents.4)Intergenerational relations and the social welfare system can interact with each other in improving the happiness of urban and rural middle-aged and elderly respondents.In those urban residents who have no social pension insurance,the effect of economic transfer from non-cohabiting children on their happiness become significantly positive;besides,among urban residents who are not under protection of social medical insurance,such economic transfer also has a positive and significant effect on their happiness.According to the above conclusions,this paper proposes the following policy recommendations to improve subjective wellbeing of younger elderly and elder elderly in urban and rural areas.First,the coverage of fundamental social welfare system and the basic living security level should be expanded and efforts should be made to ensure that elders must be well cared for.Second,humanitarian care should be strengthened,and the role of family security in raising the life satisfaction of younger elderly and elder elderly in urban and rural areas should be well brought into play.