Can information influence the social insurance participation decision of China's rural migrants?

John Giles, Xin Meng (), Sen Xue and Guochang Zhao ()

Journal of Development Economics, 2021, vol. 150, issue C

Abstract: This paper uses a randomized information intervention to shed light on whether poor understanding of social insurance, both the process of enrolling and costs and benefits, drives the relatively low rates of participation in urban health insurance and pension programs among China's rural-urban migrants. Among workers without a contract, the information intervention has a strong positive effect on participation in health insurance and, among younger age groups, in pension programs. Migrants are responsive to price: in cities where the premia are low relative to earnings, information induces health insurance participation, while declines are observed in cities with high relative premia.

Keywords: Migration; Social insurance; Information; Randomised controlled trial (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H53 H55 J46 J61 O15 O17 O53 P35 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Can Information Influence the Social Insurance Participation Decision of China's Rural Migrants? (2021)
Working Paper: Can Information Influence the Social Insurance Participation Decision of China's Rural Migrants? (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:150:y:2021:i:c:s0304387821000249

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2021.102645

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