中低收入老人家庭的決策行為──國民年金與戶內資源分配

LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME ELDERLY HOUSEHOLD DECISIONS: NATIONAL PENSIONS AND INTRAHOUSEHOLD RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN TAIWAN

我國在2008年以前老年人口經濟生活的安全網內僅涵蓋社會福利津貼以及職業相關的社會保險，其他未參加相關社會保險的人口則並未享有老年經濟生活的基本保障。有鑑於此，我國遂於2008年10月1日開辦國民年金保險，並正式將上述人口納入公共年金的保障範圍之內。本文主要使用2002－2007年與2009－2015年的「家庭收支調查」，分析國民年金政策對中低收入老人家庭戶內資源分配的影響。透過鄰近配對法建構本文用以分析的樣本，本文主要選擇以戶內擁有65歲以上（含）且領有國民年金保險的老年年金者（或符合領取資格的人口）所在之家庭做為實驗組；65歲以上（含）且領有國民年金保險的老年基本保證年金者（或敬老福利生活津貼的受益者）所在之家庭做為控制組，且應用雙重差分法，評估政策的效果。其中，為檢視所得收入者的個人特質對戶內資源分配所產生差異性的效果，本文亦將受益者的性別併入雙重差分法的分析架構之內，實證結果顯示國民年金政策將致使中低收入老人家庭的總消費支出因而下降9％。另外，所得收入者的性別亦被觀察到其將會對戶內資源的分配造成差異性的影響。

Prior to 2008, means-tested social allowance and occupational pension schemes were introduced as a social safety net for limited numbers of the elderly. As a result, Taiwan first introduced national pensions on the 1st of October 2008 for the population not covered by occupational pensions. In this paper, we use the 2002-2007 and 2009-2015 waves of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey to study the effect of national pension policy on the intrahousehold resource allocation of low- and middle-income elderly households. We construct a novel matched dataset using the nearest neighbor matching method. By including the elderly who were 65 years old or older and who were eligible for or a recipient of the old-age pension payment as a treatment group and those who were recipients of the senior citizens welfare living allowance or the old-age basic guaranteed pension payment as a control group, we use a difference-indifferences method to evaluate the policy effects and to investigate whether the gender of the recipient affects that impact. Estimates suggest that, for low- and middle-income elderly households, the national pension policy will lead to a reduction in total expenditure by 9 percent. In addition, our results show that the gender of the recipient indeed affects the impact of national pensions.