An Empirical Study On The Influence Of Income Inequality And Endowment Insurance On Happiness Of Middle-Aged And Elderly People

In 2022,The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly states that "we should thoroughly implement the people centered development thought.All theories that are divorced from the people are powerless,and all theories that do not benefit the people are lifeless.Therefore,with the rapid development of national construction,the gross domestic product has also remained at the second highest level in the world.Any improvement in national happiness that can keep up with the speed of national economic development has become a hot issue for Chinese economists in recent years.In combination with the actual situation of China’s current population structure,more precisely,in the context of the increasingly prominent aging problem in China,how to make the middle-aged and elderly people,which are part of the social vulnerable groups,get more happiness and sustenance has become a major pain point in social problems.The "happiness paradox" put forward by Easterlin describes such a situation.The residents’ happiness index has not increased with the development of the economy.Therefore,it is a problem that must be faced to investigate the influencing factors of the subjective well-being of Chinese residents,especially the middle-aged and elderly people.In the mainstream interpretation of the "happiness paradox",most scholars agree that income inequality is one of the main reasons for the above phenomenon.As we all know,there is a certain gap between the economic development speed of the central and western regions of China and that of the eastern or southern coastal areas.The dividends of the economic boom do not equally benefit every citizen.At the same time,the material living standards and spiritual subjective well-being of people in villages and towns and rural areas across the country are much lower than those in developed cities.Therefore,as one of the commonly used indicators to measure income inequality,Gini coefficient has become one of the core explanatory variables for this paper to examine the impact of luck related factors on subjective well-being.At the same time,as a necessary expenditure in social security,pension insurance bears an important responsibility to adjust the inequality of initial distribution.One of the goals of China’s people’s livelihood development in 2035 is to improve the national overall planning system of basic old-age insurance and develop a multi-level and multi pillar old-age insurance system.The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China also pointed out that "implementing the national strategy of actively responding to the aging of the population,developing the elderly care undertakings and industries,and promoting the realization of basic elderly care services for all the elderly".At present,in the process of the development of endowment insurance,there are many practical problems,such as uneven coverage and strength,serious "fragmentation" problems in various regions,and excessive differences in treatment.The above problems have greatly affected the credibility of the social security system,hindered the embodiment of its role in providing social power for the people,and thus affected the happiness of national life,Therefore,it is decided whether to participate in at least one pension insurance as another core explanatory variable affecting the subjective well-being of middle-aged and elderly people.This paper plans to sort out the data of CFPS in 2016 and 2018,screen the eligible elderly population,take subjective well-being as the dependent variable,analyze Gini coefficient and whether to participate in any pension insurance as the core explanatory variable,and use 5850 data in the comprehensive survey database of Chinese families to explain income gap The mechanism and mechanism of mutual influence between social security and residents’ sense of well-being and acquisition,and the BMI index as the standard of heterogeneity division was innovatively added to the model analysis.Based on the corresponding interpretation of people with different indexes,the tobit model and the robustness test analysis of relevant dependent variables were finally passed.Based on this,reasonable suggestions were put forward for the current situation and mechanism.In order to solve the happiness dilemma of middle-aged and elderly people.The results show that there is a significant negative correlation between income gap and residents’ sense of happiness and gain at the level of 1%;The pension insurance in the social security system is outstanding in improving residents’ sense of happiness,and the interaction between the two items has also confirmed this again in the regression,showing a significant positive correlation at the level of 1% and 5% respectively.It can be seen from the mechanism analysis that the sense of unfairness formed by the excessive income gap reduces the subjective well-being of middle-aged and elderly people.Participation in endowment insurance can not only improve the sense of happiness and acquisition by improving residents’ consumption level and health level,but also alleviate the negative impact of income gap on the sense of happiness and acquisition by improving the sense of fairness.Therefore,maintaining the fairness of income distribution,reducing residents’ concern about social risks,and improving the ability to prevent and respond to risks are important measures to improve residents’ sense of happiness and acquisition.