The 19th Xi Xian Academic Luncheon, jointly organised by IIDPF and the School of Public Finance and Taxation, was successfully held on 6 October 2022 in Conference Room 119, Wenqin Building. Dr Zou Jianwen, a full-time researcher at IIDPF, presented a keynote speech on The Social Security Role of Government Assistance - A Life Cycle Model-based Analysis. The academic luncheon was chaired by Associate Professor Wan Qian, a researcher of IIDPF, and was attended by over forty participants, including Professor Lu Yuanping, Executive Deputy Director of IIDPF, researcher Dr Wan Xin and other faculty and students for discussions and exchanges.
The main objective of social assistance is to ensure the minimum needs of the needy, and as such, it is important to improve the social assistance system as a means of protecting people's livelihoods. Among them, government assistance is the core element of the social assistance system, yet there is little literature to systematically assess the social security role of government assistance. Based on CFPS microdata, Dr Zou describes the characteristics of income risk in China and analyses the role of government assistance in reducing income risk and its heterogeneous effects. In addition, Dr Zou measured the social welfare effects of government assistance based on counterfactual simulations by developing a life-cycle model incorporating government assistance. The study finds that government assistance has the greatest effect on reducing income risk among all transfer incomes, especially among rural, low-income and less educated groups. The life-cycle model analysis also shows that government assistance significantly increases the welfare of these groups.