| As the fertility rate declines,China’s population is aging at an increasing rate and the average life expectancy of the population is increasing while the average age of the working population continues to rise.Against this background,China has proposed a national strategy to actively cope with aging,emphasizing the need to encourage the elderly to continue to play a role,and one of the most important ways for the elderly to continue to play a role is to engage in labor participation.At present,lower-aged elderly people account for a larger proportion of the elderly population in China,and this population group has the advantage of lower labor participation threshold compared with the older elderly population group.Therefore,studying the factors influencing the lower-aged elderly generation’s participation in the labor market can contribute to fully utilizing the lower-aged elderly generation’s labor resources,increasing the lower-aged elderly generation’s participation rate in the labor market,promoting economic growth and improving the reality of China’s labor shortage.In addition,for the elderly themselves,it can help strengthen their sense of social participation and satisfy their need for personal development.The data source of this paper is the data from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS).After excluding missing values and extreme values,4381 samples were retained.Combining relevant research theories and existing research results,the labor participation and labor participation length of low-aged elderly were selected as the explanatory variables;the corresponding explanatory variables were selected from four dimensions: individual characteristics,family characteristics,economic characteristics and social characteristics.Stata statistical analysis software combined with Heckman two-stage model was used to empirically analyze the factors affecting the two stages of labor force participation and labor force participation length among the younger elderly,and urban-rural heterogeneity analysis was also conducted.This paper finds that the labor force participation decision and labor force participation length of the younger elderly are related to four dimensions: individual characteristics,family characteristics,economic characteristics,and social characteristics,and the factors influencing the labor force participation of the younger elderly differ by household registration.The main findings are as follows:(1)With respect to individual characteristics,labor force participation rates are lower for younger older people as their age increases.Older men have higher labor force participation rates and longer labor force participation times.The presence of a spouse has a positive impact on the labor force participation rate and duration of labor force participation of older persons,especially those with farming status.Educational attainment,on the other hand,has a negative effect on the labor force participation rate and duration of labor force participation of the elderly.The probability of labor force participation is higher for younger elderly with better self-rated health status.(2)In the family characteristics dimension,the probability of labor force participation among the younger older adults increased as the number of children increased.In addition,having a son did not decrease but rather increased the labor force participation rate and prolonged the length of labor force participation among the younger older adults.With regard to intergenerational support,moral support had a positive effect on the lower-aged elderly,and this variable was more significant for the lower-aged elderly with agricultural household registration.Intergenerational financial support is also an important reason for lower-aged older adults to choose whether to engage in labor force participation.At the same time,lower-aged older adults were more likely to withdraw from labor or reduce their labor hours due to the provision of intergenerational care.(3)In the economic characteristics dimension,lower-aged older adults with relatively higher personal income have a greater need for labor participation,and owning property also has a facilitating effect on lower-aged older adults’ labor participation.(4)In the social characteristics dimension,lower-aged older adults without any old-age security are more likely to engage in labor and work longer hours.Unsocialized lower-aged older adults are relatively more likely to have leisure time to devote to labor.Accordingly,this paper proposes ways to promote the labor participation of the younger elderly from three levels: the government provides realistic possibilities,enterprises find the target position,and families break the old-fashioned concept.From the macro to the micro level,a synergy can be formed so that the low-aged elderly can bring a demographic dividend to the society and at the same time fully enjoy the dividend brought by their own labor participation. |
