This article examines the role of retirement savings on the living arrangements of persons aged 60 years and above in India. A major challenge to empirically analyse this relationship is the lack of a comprehensive database that captures the financial savings and health indicators of the elderly population in India in the same framework. Therefore, we use two nationally representative data sets and combine them at the district level for our empirical exercise. We exploit the exogenous variation in the exposure to retirement savings across the districts to analyse how retirement savings impact the living arrangements of elderly persons. Our findings indicate that elderly persons in districts with high retirement savings are more likely to live independently. Elderly people from the lower-income strata with retirement savings are more likely to live independently than those from higher-income groups. Our results demonstrate the importance of retirement savings in improving the welfare of the elderly population and the need for further improving the financial penetration among the elderly in India.
BethencourtC., & Rios-RullJ. V. (2009). On the living arrangements of elderly widows. International Economic Review, 50(3), 773–801.
2.
BishopC. E. (1986). Living arrangement choices of elderly singles: Effects of income and disability. Health Care Financing Review, 7(3), 65.
3.
BrownJ. W., KrauseN., AkiyamaH., SugisawaH., & FukayaT. (2002). Transitions in living arrangements among elders in Japan: Does health make a difference?Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences57(4), 209–220.
4.
CaiF., GilesJ., & MengX. (2006). How well do children insure parents against low retirement income? An analysis using survey data from urban China. Journal of Public Economics, 90, 2229–2255.
5.
CaseA. (2004). Does money protect health status? Evidence from South African pensions. In WiseD. A. (Ed.), Perspectives on the Economics of Aging (pp. 287–312). University of Chicago Press.
6.
ChaudhuriA., & RoyK. (2009). Gender differences in living arrangements among older persons in India. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 44(3), 259–277. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909609102897
7.
ChenX. (2015). Old age pension and intergenerational living arrangements: A regression discontinuity design. Review of Economics of the Household, 15(2), 455–476. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-015-9304-y
8.
ChengL., LiuH., ZhangY., & ZhaoZ. (2017). The heterogeneous impact of pension income on elderly living arrangements: Evidence from China’s new rural pension scheme. Journal of Population Economics, 31(1), 155–192. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-017-0655-y
9.
CostaD. L. (1997). Displacing the family: Union army pensions and elderly living arrangements. Journal of Political Economy, 105(6), 1269–1292. https://doi.org/10.1086/516392
10.
CostaD. L. (1999). A house of her own: Old age assistance and the living arrangements of older nonmarried women. Journal of Public Economics, 72(1), 39–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2727(98)00094-2
11.
DostieB., & LégerP. T. (2005). The living arrangement dynamics of sick, elderly individuals. Journal of Human Resources, 40(4), 989–1014.
12.
EdmondsE. V., MammenK., & MillerD. L. (2005). Rearranging the family?: Income support and elderly living arrangements in a low-income country. Journal of Human resources, 40(1), 186–207.
13.
EngelhardtG. V.GruberJ., & PerryC. D. (2005). Social security and elderly living arrangements evidence from the social security notch. Journal of Human Resources, 40, 354–372.
14.
GoliS., ReddyA. B., JamesK. S., & SrinivasanV. (2019). Economic independence and social security among India’s elderly. Economic and Political Weekly, 54(39), 32–41.
15.
IdlerE. L., & BenyaminiY. (1997). Self-rated health and mortality: A review of twenty-seven community studies. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 38(1), 21–37.
16.
JoharM., & MaruyamaS. (2011). Intergenerational cohabitation in modern Indonesia: Filial support and dependence. Health Economy, 20(Suppl 1), 87–104. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.1708
17.
JuY. J., KimW., LeeS. A., LeeJ. E., YoonH., & ParkE. C. (2017). Lack of retirement preparation is associated with increased depressive symptoms in the elderly: Findings from the Korean Retirement and Income Panel Study. Journal of Korean Medical Science, 32(9), 1516.
18.
KumarS. V. (2003). Economic Security for the Elderly in India. Journal of Ageing and Social Policy, 15(2), 45–65.
19.
LeeW. K. M., & LawK. W. K. (2004). Retirement planning and retirement satisfaction: The need for a national retirement program and policy in Hong Kong. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 23(3), 212–233.
20.
LusardiA., & MitchellO. S. (2008). Planning and financial literacy: How do women fare?American Economic Review, 98(2), 413–417.
21.
ManacordaM., & MorettiE. (2006). Why do most Italian youths live with their parents? Intergenerational transfers and household structure. Journal of the European Economic Association, 4(4), 800–829. https://doi.org/10.1162/JEEA.2006.4.4.800
22.
MansorM. F., ChorC. H., AbuN. H., & ShaariM. S. (2015). Demographic factors associated with retirement planning: A study of employees in Malaysian Health Sectors. Asian Social Science, 11(13), 108–116.
23.
McGarryK., & SchoeniR. F. (2000). Social security, economic growth, and the rise in elderly widows’ independence in the twentieth century. Demography, 37(2), 221–236. https://doi.org/10.2307/2648124
24.
MichaelR. T., FuchsV. R., & ScottS. R. (1980). Changes in the propensity to live alone: 1950–1976. Demography, 17(1), 39–56.
25.
MuhammadT., BalachandranA., & SrivastavaS. (2021). Socioeconomic and health determinants of preference for separate living among older adults: A cross-sectional study in India. PLoS ONE, 16 (4April), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249828
26.
NiranjanS., NairS., & RoyT. K. (2005). A socio-demographic analysis of the size and structure of the family in India. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 36(4), 623–652.
27.
Population Reference Bureau. (2012). 2012 world population data sheet. Population Reference Bureau.
28.
SinghC., BharatiK., & SanyalA. (2015). Ageing in India: Need for universal pension scheme. Economic and Political Weekly, 40–46.
29.
WangF. Y. (2021). Causal inference between the health status and living arrangements of elderly people in China. Social Indicators Research, 59, 1155–1178. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-021-02792-7
30.
XiaoJ. J. (1995). Financial Preparation for Retirement. Consumer Interests Annual, 41.
31.
ZimmerZ. (2005). Health and living arrangement transitions among China’s oldest-old. Research on Aging, 27(5), 526–555. https://doi.org/10.1177/0164027505277848
