| Abstract: |
This paper highlights the employment patterns of China’s over-45 population
and, for perspective, places them in the context of work and retirement
patterns in Indonesia, Korea, the United States, and the United Kingdom. As is
common in many developing countries, China can be characterized as having two
retirement systems: a formal system, under which urban employees receive
generous pensions and face mandatory retirement by age 60, and an informal
system, under which rural residents and individuals in the informal sector
rely on family support in old age and have much longer working lives. Gender
differences in age of exit from work are shown to be much greater in urban
China than in rural areas, and also greater than observed in Korea and
Indonesia. Descriptive evidence is presented suggesting that pension eligible
workers are far more likely to cease productive activity at a relatively young
age. A strong relationship between health status and labor supply in rural
areas is observed, indicating the potential role that improvements in access
to health care may play in extending working lives and also providing some
basis for a common perception that older rural residents tend to work as long
as they are physically capable. The paper concludes with a discussion of
measures that may facilitate longer working lives as China’s population ages. |