Richer and healthier? Social pensions and unhealthy consumption behaviour in China

Replication files for \"Richer and healthier? Social pensions and unhealthy consumption behaviour in China\" Abstract: \"Based on a life course utility model that incorporates healthy and unhealthy, short-run and long-run consumption behaviour of consumers, this study examines the unintended impact of social pensions on the smoking behaviours of the rural elderly and its underlying channels. Using China’s New Rural Pension Scheme as a policy experiment, our empirical identification rests on nonparametric fuzzy regression discontinuity to address the endogeneity problem of receiving a pension. Overall, the results indicate that receiving a pension decreases the probability of smoking and the number of cigarettes smoked. We demonstrate that the most important channel is the increase in income following the pension transfer which makes consumers value more the future utility, instead of substituting smoking with food, which is healthier. The positive health impact of social pensions is more salient for elderly individuals who are relatively poor or who have a longer life expectancy.”《更富裕亦更健康？中国社会养老金与不健康消费行为》复现文件。摘要：本研究基于整合了消费者健康与不健康、短期与长期消费行为的生命周期效用模型，考察社会养老金对农村老年群体吸烟行为的非预期影响及其内在作用机制。本研究以中国新型农村社会养老保险为政策实验场景，采用非参数模糊断点回归（nonparametric fuzzy regression discontinuity）方法进行实证识别，以解决领取养老金的内生性（endogeneity）问题。整体而言，研究结果显示，领取养老金可降低老年人吸烟概率与日均吸烟量。本研究证实，最为核心的作用机制为养老金发放带来的收入提升，使老年群体更重视未来效用，而非通过以更健康的食物替代吸烟这一路径。社会养老金对健康的积极影响，在相对贫困或预期寿命更长的老年群体中更为显著。