An Empirical Study on Elderly Living Arrangements and Its Factors in Rural China

Living arrangement has great impact to the welfare of the elderly.This paper uses data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey(CHARLS) to investigate the factors influencing living arrangement in rural China.Our empirical results show that,the elderly who are widowed or in poorer health conditions or have low level of ADL are more likely to live with their children,and they are more willing to live with their children subjectively,indicating that they have more demand for family supporting.At the same time,the elderly who are wealthier or have pensions are not more likely to live with their children.These findings suggest that,the elderly live with their children not to obtain economic support but to direct care or feeling comfort.The popularizing of new rural pension program and more economic support cannot substitute the demand of direct care and feeling support of the elderly.