Research On The Influencing Factors Of Labor Participation Of Elderly People In China

Based on the CHARLS2015 data,this paper establishes three influencing factor variables: individual level factors,family level factors and social level factors,and analyzes the influencing factors of the elderly's labor participation by using the econometric method.Based on the questionnaire,this paper also makes an empirical analysis of the influencing factors of three types of labor,namely,agricultural labor,employed labor,non-agricultural self-employed labor and labor for family management(hereinafter referred to as non-agricultural self-employed labor).Descriptive analysis shows that the age of 70 is an important node for the rapid decline of labor participation of elderly population.In terms of labor types,the elderly have more participation in agricultural labor,and less participation in employed labor and non-agricultural self-employed labor.In terms of groups,there is a large gap in the labor participation of elderly population based on age,gender,urban and rural characteristics.Empirical analysis shows that multiple variables at the individual level are still the important influencing factors for elderly population to participate in labor,but there are differences based on different types of labor.Age,gender,type of residence in urban or rural areas have a consistent impact on the labor participation of elderly population.Marriage status has opposite influence on different types of labor participation.The elderly with spouse in general labor and agricultural labor tend to increase labor participation,but have negative influence on employed labor and non-agricultural self-employed labor.However,the education level has a significant negative impact on the existence of general labor and agricultural labor(whether to complete formal school education or not),while it has no significant impact on the employed labor and non-agricultural self-employed labor.Subjective health indicators have more significant effect on the reduction of employed labor and non-agricultural self-employed labor,but the negative effect on the general labor and agricultural labor is not obvious.Among the objective health indicators,the two types of chronic diseases with higher mortality significantly cut down all kinds of labor participation of elderly population,but the lower lethal chronic diseases have a significant income effect on the general labor,agricultural labor and non-agricultural self-employed labor,which still shows a significant reduction effect on the employed labor.Although the low BMI index is not a significant factor affecting the labor participation of the elderly,we need to pay attention to the strong reduction effect of the high BMI index on all kinds of labor participation of elderly population.Many factors at the family level have little influence on the labor participation of elderly population as a whole,but they are the important reasons for different types of labor participation and different groups of elderly labor participation.The bottom-up intergenerational economic support does not play a supporting role in protecting the elderly to reduce labor participation in the existing research,but the intergenerational support from the top to the bottom has played a significant role in increasing labor participation in different types of labor.In terms of family members,there is no significant influence on the number of people who live together for employed labor and non-agricultural self-employed labor,but on the other hand,the number of family living together significantly reduces the general labor and agricultural labor participation of the elderly.In terms of children,although the number of children is not a significant influence factor on the general labor,agricultural labor and employed labor,when the number of sons reaches a large number(3 or more),the general labor and agricultural labor of the elderly increase significantly,which does not exist in the employed labor.As for the non-agricultural self-employed labor,the influence of children has changed to reduce labor participation.On the one hand,housework has no significant impact on the general labor,agricultural labor and non-agricultural self-employed labor of elderly population,on the other hand,it significantly reduces the employed labor of the elderly.On the social level,only in the non-agricultural self-employed labor,the pension insurance shows the security effect of significantly reducing labor participation,while in the general labor,agricultural labor and employed labor,the participation in the pension insurance significantly increases the labor participation of the elderly,taking into account the pension amount issues raised in some studies.However,because of its wide coverage,medical insurance has no significant impact on the labor participation of elderly population,and its health effect has not been verified in this paper.According to the empirical analysis of different groups,the possible reasons for the big differences in labor participation of the elderly in different age groups are BMI index and children factor.The possible reasons for the big differences in labor participation of the elderly of different genders are subjective and objective health factors and children's factors.The possible reasons for the big differences in labor participation of the elderly of different types of residence in urban or rural areas are marriage status,chronic diseases with low lethal degree,economic support provided by children,domestic work and medical insurance.More in-depth exploration still needs more perfect data and research design.