Set rainy days aside: How pension insurance affects household tourism consumption

Abstract

This paper integrates precautionary savings theory with hierarchical leisure constraints theory to develop a new theoretical framework for investigating the effect of pension insurance on household tourism consumption. Drawing on large-scale survey data from the 2016–2020 China Family Panel Studies, this study provides an empirical analysis of this effect. The findings indicate that participation in pension insurance significantly promotes household tourism consumption. Specifically, pension insurance reduces residents' uncertainty about future income through structural factors (i.e., household income inequality) and nonstructural factors (i.e., savings intentions), thereby enhancing household tourism consumption. Moreover, the heterogeneity analysis reveals that this promotional effect is more pronounced among urban households, those with higher self-assessed health, and childless families. Additionally, the combination of social pension insurance and family eldercare can generate a synergistic effect that more effectively boosts household tourism consumption. This paper provides theoretical and empirical support for improving China's pension system and stimulating tourism consumption.