Jiaxin Liu

Thesis

Thesis supervisor

• Dr Antonios Roumpakis

Thesis

Crowding-out or crowding-in? Re-examining the roles of the state and family in providing for the aged in China

In the absence of universal public pensions, family in China has long been responsible for supporting elderly people and protecting them from poverty. However, the ageing population, accompanied by the shifting family and demographic structure is changing the picture. Meanwhile, via recent pension reforms such as extending coverage, the Chinese government has increased public supports for the elderly especially those who were institutionally excluded for long. How the elderly people and their families respond to those social structural changes and protect themselves from poverty is still unknown and requires further study. Therefore, the research aims are three-fold: to investigate the changing roles of family and the state in providing for elderly people, to explore the interactions between intergenerational supports and public pensions, namely, the potential crowding-out and/or crowding-in effects, and to understand how elderly people in China experience poverty/social exclusion in their retirement.

Research interests

• Pensions
• Family and intergenerational relations
• Poverty and income inequality
• Quantitative and mixed method research designs

Profile

Biography

Prior to joining the school as a PhD student, I obtained my MSc in Social Policy (Research) from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2017 and BA in Labour and Social Security from Renmin University of China in 2016. I also worked as a research assistant at the Centre for Population and Development Policy Studies which is based at Fudan University. Based on my study and working experiences, I have developed an interest in pensions and old-age poverty, as well as the interactions between family and the state.

I started my PhD study in October 2018, which is made possible by the generous grant of the Overseas Research Scholarship by York Graduate Research School.

Teaching

• GTA in Advanced Quantitative Methods in the School for Business and Society, Demonstrator.

Books

Book Translation

Translator of the Chinese version of the book Basics of Social Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (3rd Edition) by W. Lawrence Neuman (to be published in 2019)