Research Department Working Paper n°40

What drives old age work in China?

The aim of this paper is to contribute to an understanding of the decisions of the near old and older Chinese to work, and how work characteristics vary across genders, localities, and within overall income and security situations as ageing advances.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to an understanding of the decisions of the near old and older Chinese to work, and how work characteristics vary across genders, localities, and within overall income and security situations as ageing advances. The results of this analysis suggest that the decision to work and the amount of work among older persons constitute key elements of coping strategies, and these continue to differ across four demographic groups: rural, urban, male, and female. These differences are associated with variations in government policies targeted towards older populations as well as with long established cultural and social norms.