Personal Life Satisfaction of China's Rural Elderly: Effect of the New Rural Pension Programme

Abstract This paper studies the effects of China's newly established rural pension programme on personal life satisfaction of the rural elderly along with other social, economic and demographic factors. The results indicate that old‐age security is a key component of personal life satisfaction for the rural elderly, and the New Rural Pension Programme can significantly improve their subjective well‐being. The importance of sons is declining given the wider availability of rural pension programmes. Additionally, the study finds that a poorly designed pension programme could not only result in low participation rate but also negatively affect personal life satisfaction of nonparticipants. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.