Has new rural pension system reduced the intake of junk food among rural older adults? Evidence from China

At present, China has become one of the fastest growing countries in terms of junk food consumption. However, there has been less previous evidence for the effect of endowment insurance on dietary health. Using the data China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2014, this paper exploits a policy, the New Rural Pension System (NRPS), that only the older adults who have reached 60 years old can receive pensions and conduct a fuzzy regression discontinuity (FRD) to address endogeneity and examine the causal effect of the NRPS on the intake of junk food among rural older adults in China. We find that the NRPS can significantly reduce junk food intake among them, which remains robust after a series of robustness tests. In addition, heterogeneity analysis shows that the female, low-educated, unemployed, and low-income groups are more sensitive to the pension shock from the NRPS. The result of our study provides insights to effectively improve people's dietary quality and related policy formulation.