Qing Zhao, Xiaojun Wang, Haijie Mi

【Abstract】

The primary objectives of a pension system are poverty relief and income substitution, also known as the goal of adequacy. This paper constructs an assessment framework using Synthetic-Indicators to evaluate China’s pension system based on European’s newly developed multidimensional perspectives. According to the micro-level data from China General Social Survey and census data, findings suggest that the situation on adequacy of pension benefit is not satisfactory in terms of indicators of income, poverty relief and gender gap, and the benefit level varies from province to province in different years in China. We conclude this paper by giving advice on strengthening the function of income substitution, poverty relief and narrowing gender gap in the design of China’s multilayer pension system.