This paper explores on the impact of social pension program on health behaviors.From the theoretical perspective,we find three mechanisms underlying the impact of pension program on health behaviors,including the income effect(increase of fu-ture income),the time preference effect(increase of marginal utility of long-term consumption),and the commitment tool(forced long-term investment).Applying the Instrumental Variable method,we use data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudi-nal Study(CHARLS)in year 2011 and 2013 to estimate the impact of pension program on the health behaviors of rural residents,and find that the social pension program significantly reduces the"harmful"health behaviors of enrollees such as smoking and in-tense physical activities,and meanwhile promotes"beneficial"health behaviors such as reasonable diet and adequate night sleep.Our findings suggest that although people's subjective assessment of the life value is often infinitely high-"life is priceless",their actual health behaviors are indeed influenced by economic incentives-"life is valuable".Hence,government should give full con-siderations to the guidance and encouragement of residents'health behaviors and the associated potential social welfare effects in the policy making of corresponding social security policies.
关键词
农村社会养老保险/健康行为/健康资本/Grossman健康需求理论
Key words
social pension insurance/health behavior/health capital/Grossman's Model of Demand for Healthcare and Health
维普
万方数据