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.

The major source of income of Chinese farmers is non-farm income, especially wages and salaries. Based on the economics theory of health and healthcare, their non-farm labor supply behavior could be affected by health insurance policies. The work presented in this paper focuses on the impact of the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS) on farmers’ non-farm labor supply behavior in China. A four-part model regression approach was used to examine the relationship. Our dataset comprised of 8273 people, aged 45 or above, from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) conducted in 2011 and 2013. The empirical results showed that NRCMS significantly reduced non-farm labor force participation and employment. Compared to non-participants of the NRCMS, the non-farmer labor time of these participants reduced, but the supplementary medical insurance and immediate reimbursement of the NRCMS increased the participants’ non-farm labor time. Our results have contributed to the reform of China’s public health insurance and farms’ income growth, and it would be necessary to actively promote immediate reimbursement, gradually simplify reimbursement procedures for medical treatment in non-registered places, and eliminate the non-portability of NRCMS.

This study explores the impact of social pensions on risky household financial asset holding, taking the Urban and Rural Residents Pension Scheme (URRPS) in China as an example. We combine regression discontinuity with the difference-in-difference approach to analyze the 2015 and 2017 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data. The results show that the URRPS has significantly increased the likelihood of holding risky financial assets among Chinese households. Furthermore, the effect is larger for urban households than for rural households. Apart from social pensions, marital and health status, education, risk attitude, household size, asset value, and urban residence also affect the households’ risky financial asset holdings.

The input of chemical fertilizers to save land and the input of agricultural mechanization to save labor have been important driving forces in China’s grain production since the reform and opening-up. In recent years, the existing literature discussed the relationship between the scale of agricultural land and the application of chemical fertilizers but ignored the role of mechanization in agricultural production and management. We used the intermediary effect model to examine how the cropland use scale affected farmers’ fertilization behavior through agricultural mechanization investment. Our dataset contained data from the Fixed Observation Points of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in China conducted between 2015 and 2017. The results showed that the expansion of the cropland scale significantly reduced the fertilizer input per mu and indirectly reduced the fertilizer input of farmers by increasing the input of agricultural mechanization. In a word, agricultural mechanization played a mediation effect. Further heterogeneity results showed that because grain crops are easier to operate mechanically, the mediation effect was more significant; similarly, under the patterns of “south prefer to service, north prefer to self-purchase” and “south grow rice and north grow wheat,” southern areas received a more significant reduction effect in mainland China. These findings defined the role of agricultural mechanization and provided a new perspective for realizing the reduction and efficiency of chemical fertilizers and reducing agricultural non-point source pollution.

A large body of literature has shown that the burden of healthcare can push individuals and households into the burden of medical care and income loss. This makes it difficult for rural or low-income households to obtain and use safe and affordable formal credit services. In 2003, China’s government implemented a new rural public health insurance, which was called the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS). This study provides evidence of the impact of NRCMS on household credit availability using the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) for 2010. The tobit regression approach and mediator model are used. The results show that, as a public health insurance system sustained by the participation of government investment, the NRCMS provides good “collateral” and significantly enhances rural households’ formal credit availability level. Furthermore, this positive effect is mainly reflected in the economic effect of NRCMS. Our results are robust to alternative statistical methods. Our findings suggest that expanding access, fulfilling the NRCMS mortgage function, and providing more financial services for rural households would have big benefits with regard to easing credit constraints for rural residents.

In China, agricultural non-point source pollution is one of the key factors limiting farmers’ income growth, and pro-environmental behavior can address agricultural surface pollution. Based on field survey data from 591 farmers in Xinjiang, China, this study empirically estimates the impact of pro-environmental behavior on farmers’ income growth. The results show that pro-environmental behavior plays a significant positive role in increasing farmers’ income, and the positive effect continues in the long run. Specifically, pro-environmental behavior can optimize the allocation of agricultural production factors, thus resulting in farmers’ income growth. The mechanism analysis shows that pro-environmental behavior affects farmers’ income growth by promoting the increase in the size of arable land and farmers’ willingness to transfer their land in the future. These findings indicate that a sound reward–punishment system for pro-environmental behavior should be established; training on pro-environmental behavior should be strengthened, and a mechanism for linking the benefits of pro-environmental behavior among stakeholders should be constructed.