ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Health Economics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1619806
This article is part of the Research TopicPublic Health Outcomes: The Role of Social Security Systems in Improving Residents' Health Welfare, Volume IIView all 7 articles
Urban-rural social security, adult children's layoffs and elderly health
Provisionally accepted
- Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China
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Objective: Aging population and rising unemployment risks have emerged as dual challenges for governments worldwide. Using China's 1990s state-owned enterprise layoffs as a natural experiment, we examine causal evidence on how adult children's unemployment affects elderly parental health. We particularly analyze how urban-rural social security moderates these effects. Methods: Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey 1991-2006, we construct three health outcome dimensions for the elderly: disease status, daily functional abilities (physical function and instrumental activities of daily living), and body mass index. Econometric analysis uses a two-way fixed effects model and a causal forest model. Results:The layoffs of adult children significantly increased elderly parents' morbidity risk. Due to disparities in the social security system between urban and rural household registration (hukou), this effect primarily increased health risks-including higher probability of disease, increased risk of hypertension, limitations in daily activities, and underweight conditions-among rural-hukou elderly living in urban areas. In contrast, layoffs of adult children showed no measurable impact on urbanhukou elderly parents. Mechanistically, layoffs did not reduce daily care provided by children to their parents, but rather diminished household income. Moreover, layoffs of adult children reduced elderly parents' healthcare utilization and lowered their nutritional intake. Rural-hukou elderly living in urban areas were most affected, with reduced protein and fat consumption. Conclusion:The reduction in family resources caused by adult children's unemployment is detrimental to elderly health. The social security system serves as a vital safety net for protecting the health of elderly populations. Strengthening social security is an essential policy complement to mitigate welfare losses in families affected by unemployment.
Keywords: Mass layoffs, Elderly health, urban-rural disparities in social security, Intergenerational support, machine learning
Received: 18 Jun 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yifei Yang, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China
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