Empirical Research on Retirement Expectations in China

Abstract

Using survey data sampled from 30 provinces and cities in China in 2015, this paper probes the factors influencing retirement expectations across genders. Empirical results indicate that age, level of education, health, number of dependents, number of independent sources of household income, enterprise characteristics, and working conditions significantly affect expectations for both men and women. Additionally, leisure consumption and the expected retirement age greatly impacts an individual’s actual retirement age. This research contributes to the understanding of people’s retirement expectations to inform future reforms of Chinese retirement age policies.