Retirement and Social Capital: Evidence from Urban China

Xindong Xue, Chunchen Ye and Lorenzo Rocco ()
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Xindong Xue: Zhongnan University of Economics and Law
Chunchen Ye: Hubei Academy of Healthcare Security Reform and Development
Lorenzo Rocco: University of Padova

No 18822, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: We study the effect of retirement on social capital in urban China. Using three waves of the China Family Panel Studies (2018–2022) and a fuzzy regression discontinuity design based on China’s statutory retirement ages, we document that retirement does not raise or lower social capital uniformly but reallocates it. Retirement causes bridging social capital to fall and bonding social capital to rise. The reallocation is concentrated among men, whose pre-retirement networks are more heavily workplace-centered. As governments around the world postpone statutory retirement ages in response to population ageing, our estimates imply that pension reforms carry social externalities of opposing sign that fiscal accounting omits.

Keywords: retirement; social capital; fuzzy regression discontinuity; bridging and bonding social capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 I31 J26 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-07
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