Determinants of Chinese elderly living arrangements: Coresidence decision and concurrence of preference, evidence from CHARLS 201

This paper uses the latest social survey data of China's elderly population, the second wave of CHARLS in 2013 to examine the trends in the changing living arrangement patterns and individual preferences of China's growing elderly population. It uses multivariate regression models to estimate the effect of individual preferences in the decision-making of living arrangements. The impacts of the elderly individual's own preference in the decision making of elderly living arrangement are measured by statistical methods. The association between living arrangements and the elderly's satisfaction or subjective well-being, as measured by the concurrence of the elderly's preferred and actual living arrangements, are also examined in this study. Models are specified for elderly people by different marital status and Hukou, and take account of the elderly's previous employment history, pension policy institutions and living arrangement preferences. Findings are that the individual preferences for independent living arrangements are negatively associated with the co-residence rates of the elderly at statistically significant levels, and the negative association becomes more even more prominent for widowed elderly. Since living arrangement is an important indicator of the old-age support and old-age security, the empirical findings are meaningful. Policy implications are that pension and old age security should be equal and customized, with special focus on the rural, widowed elderly, who are most vulnerable and least likely to have their preferred living arrangements as the results show.