Gender differences in the importance of family and social relations for life satisfaction among elderly Japanese

Objectives. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the associations of life satisfaction with family and social relations differ between elderly men and women in Japan. Methods. Ordered logit models were estimated to explain life satisfaction with a rich set of explanatory variables, using micro data from 3,063 Japanese elderly adults (1,565 men and 1,498 women) collected from the first-wave sample of the Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR), a survey compatible with the HRS in the United States and SHARE in Europe. Results. This study found that life satisfaction is more closely associated with family and social relations for women than for men, after controlling for socioeconomic, health, and other factors. Women are more sensitive than men to coresidence and contact with family members, especially parents-in-law, as well as to social relations with others in the community, while men are much more depressed than women by divorce or widowhood. Discussion. Observed associations between each factor and life satisfaction are largely consistent with those separately reported by preceding studies. However, this analysis compared the relative importance of each factor and its gender difference, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of subjective well-being of elderly people.

Social Security and Trust Fund Management

In this paper we investigate why and to what extent the government should have a social security trust fund, and how it should manage the fund in the face of demographic shocks, based on a simple overlapping-generations model. We show that, given an aging population, a trust fund in some form could achieve the (modified) golden rule or to offset the negative income effect of a PAYGO system. Besides, in a closed economy where factor-prices effects dominate, using the trust fund as a buffer for demographic shocks could lead to a widening of intergenerational inequality. We also the discuss policy implications of our analysis on the social security reform debate in Japan, including the fixed tax method and the use of the trust fund in the face of a rapidly aging population.

Social Security Reform and Childcare Support

This paper examines how social security reform and childcare support affect fertility and social welfare, based on a simple overlapping generations model with endogenous fertility. In an open economy with no altruism, introducing a childcare subsidy is the second-best solution under an aging population. However, in a closed economy and/or assuming the household's altruistic bequests, childcare support is not necessarily desirable and the case that curtailing a pay-as-you-go social security system reduces social welfare cannot be ruled out. In addition, we show that social security reform and childcare have different effects on the transition process to a new steady state.Social security, childcare support, fertility, bequests

Happiness, self-rated health, and income inequality: Evidence from nationwide surveys in Japan

We examine how regional inequality affects happiness and self-rated health at an individual level by using micro data from nationwide surveys in Japan. Individuals who live in the area of high inequality tend to report themselves as both unhappy and unhealthy, even after controlling for various individual and regional characteristics and taking into account the correlation between the two subjective outcomes. We also investigate how their sensitivities to regional inequality change by key individual attributes. People with an unstable work status are most affected by inequality when assessing both happiness and health.happiness, self-rated health, income inequality

What factors determine student performance in East Asia? New evidence from TIMSS 2007

This study investigates what factors determine students’ academic performance in five major economies in East Asia, using the dataset from the 2007 survey of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). We explicitly consider initial maturity differences, endogeneity of class size, and peer effects in regression analysis. We find that a student’s individual and family background is a key determinant of educational performance, while institutional and resource variables have a more limited effect. Peer effects are significant in general, but ability sorting at the school and/or class levels makes it difficult to interpret them in Hong Kong and Singapore.Educational production function, Initial maturity differences, Peer effects, Class size, Asia

Maximum size of social security in a model of endogenous fertility

Social security tends to be unsustainable in nature. It reduces individuals'' demand for children as a measure to support their lifestyle during old age, which in turn undermines the financial basis of social security. Using a simple overlapping generations model with endogenous fertility and income transfer from children to parents, we discuss the maximum size of a pay-as-you-go social security program that can prevent a cumulative reduction of fertility and make a program sustainable. We also show that a child-care allowance raises the maximum size of the program and raises an individual''s lifetime utility.social security, fertility, intergenerational income transfer

The effect of smoking on individual well-being: a propensity score matching analysis based on nationwide surveys in Japan

Background: It is widely known that smokers tend to feel less satisfied than non-smokers with their jobs and life more generally. However, it is not easy to establish a causal relationship between smoking and individual well-being, because of shared associations with socioeconomic or demographic factors. This issue was largely avoided in the present study, which used propensity score matching methods to investigate whether smoking affects the extent to which individuals are satisfied with their job and other aspects of their life. Methods: Using a large-scale Japanese dataset, we first estimated propensity scores for smoking as a function of numerous socioeconomic and demographic factors. We then matched smokers to non-smokers on the basis of these. We subsequently estimated the average treatment effect, considering smoking as a treatment and smokers as the treated group. We used different matching methods to ascertain the robustness of any effects. Results: We found that smoking made both males and females unhappy, and that it reduced both the extent to which they were satisfied with multiple aspects of their lives (including their job, non-working activities, household's financial conditions, family life, friendships, residential area, health and physical conditions) and their level of self-rated health. Some of these effects differed between males and females. Conclusions: Our propensity score matching analyses identified smoking as having direct adverse effects on individual well-being.Smoking, Happiness, Job satisfaction, Self-rated Health, Propensity score matching

Regional income inequality and happiness: Evidence from Japan

We investigated how regional income inequality is associated with the individual assessment of happiness based on micro data from nationwide surveys in Japan. Our multilevel analysis using logit and ordered logit models confirmed that individuals who live in areas of high inequality tend to report themselves as less happy, even after controlling for various individual and regional factors. Notably, the fact that happiness depends on not only income but also income inequality indicates the importance of income redistribution for individual well-being. We also find that the association between regional inequality and happiness is not uniform across the different levels of perceived happiness. Moreover, the sensitivities of happiness to regional inequality differ substantially by key individual attributes such as gender, marital status, level of education, occupational status, and political views. Among others, an important finding for social policy is that those of unstable occupational status and those with a lower level of education are more sensitive to regional inequality. Given the fact that these people tend to be less happy than the others, this result points to the risk that regional inequality additionally reduces the well-being of those under unfavorable socioeconomic conditions.Happiness, income inequality, multilevel analysis, Japan

The Labor Supply Effect of Social Security Earnings Test Revisited: New Evidence from its Elimination and Revival in Japan

Evidence on the effect of the social security earnings test on the labor supply of the elderly continues to be mixed. We utilize micro-level data compiled by the Japanese government in order to examine the labor supply effect for those aged 65-69 before and after two major reforms of the social security earnings test in Japan: its elimination in 1985 and its revival in 2002. We provide little evidence that the changes in the earnings test affected the wage distribution of the elderly after controlling for changes in the attributes of workers and firms.At the same time, the direct survey responses to the effect of the revival in 2002 reveals a large effect on the labor supply of the elderly. These empirical findings indicate the risk that a traditional bunch analysis underestimates the labor supply effect when it is obscured by measurement errors or labor market rigidities.social security earnings test, labor supply of the elderly, Japan, wage distribution, DiNardo-Fortin-Lemieux decomposition

Disability Pension Program and Labor Force Participation in Japan: A Historical Perspective

This paper utilizes historical information to explore the relationship between labor force participation of middle aged and old people and the disability program in Japan. In particular, we explore the time series dimension to identify what has determined the trend in disability program participation over time and relate it with the labor supply. We find that mortality and health measures have been largely unrelated to the disability program participation rates. While major revisions to the disability program have slightly expanded the eligibility for DI programs, the program participation is still very low; thus, the effect on labor force participation is very limited in Japan, which is in contrast with some European countries that have high take up rates, inducing early retirement.