Measuring Multidimensional Poverty Reduction for the Chinese Elderly – Based on 2010 and 2016 Data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS)

Xu Liping (徐丽萍)1, Xia Qingjie (夏庆杰)2 and He Shengnian (贺胜年)3*

1,3 International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC), Beijing, China

2 School of Economics, Peking University, Beijing, China

Abstract: Based on data gathered from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2010 and 2016, this paper examines income poverty and multidimensional poverty among the Chinese elderly. Compared with the non-elderly population, poverty incidence was relatively lower among China’s elderly population in 2010, but the elderly poor were significantly more poor. By 2016, the level of poverty became more or less the same between elderly and non-elderly people. Compared with 2010, the poverty incidence on various deprived dimensions and the average share of deprivation for the elderly fell sharply in 2016 by an average of 30 and 10 percentage points, respectively. Reduction in poverty incidence was 10 percentage points higher for the rural elderly than for the urban elderly. After estimating the multidimensional poverty index for the elderly by the “two no worries and three guarantees” criteria, we found that the intensity of multidimensional poverty was only about half that of the income poverty. The “two worries,” i.e. the lack of food and clothing, contributed more to multidimensional poverty than did what the “three guarantees” target i.e. education, healthcare and housing, especially on income and residential energy dimensions. Elderly healthcare contributed more than 20% to the “three guarantees.”

Keywords: targeted poverty reduction, elderly poverty, multidimensional poverty

JEL Classification Codes: F061.3

DOI: 10.19602/j.chinaeconomist.2021.03.06