This study examines the impact of social engagement on elderly health in China. A two-stage residual inclusion (2SRI) regression approach was used to examine the causal relationship. Our dataset comprises 9253 people aged 60 or above from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS) conducted in 2011 and 2013. Social engagement significantly improved the self-rated health of the elderly and reduced mental distress, but had no effect on chronic disease status. Compared with the rural areas, social engagement played a more important role in promoting the elderly health status in urban areas. Social engagement could affect the health status of the elderly through health behavior change and access to health resources. To improve the health of the elderly in China and promote healthy aging, the government should not only improve access to effective medical care but also encourage greater social engagement of the elderly.

How does a social pension scheme affect farm production? This study addresses this question by investigating the effect of social pension on farm production by taking Urban and Rural Residents Pension Scheme (URRPS) in China as an illustration. Based on the implementation of the policy before and after the unification of URRPS, this paper uses the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS) in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018 and conducts an analytical framework of the difference-in-difference model. The results show that, although the impact of URRPS on labor productivity is not significant, the pension income of URRPS significantly improves the land productivity of elderly farmers. Furthermore, the land productivity effect is larger for male farmers. This paper reveals the certain role played by pension scheme in promoting farm production, providing insights on alleviating the pressure of farm production brought by agricultural labor aging.