Does Long-Term Care Insurance Encourage Urban-To-Urban Migration in China?

In China, urban-to-urban migration is rising and poised to dominate internal migration. Utilizing data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), this study applies a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) approach to examine the impact of long-term care insurance (LTCI) on this emerging migration pattern among the children of older adults. The results indicate that LTCI significantly encourages urban-to-urban migration in the population studied. This facilitative effect is particularly pronounced among children of individuals over 80 years of age, children of non-disabled older adults, adult children, and non-only children in families. LTCI schemes excluding home care payments and adopting fixed payment models demonstrate superior results. Specifically, LTCI strengthens parent-child ties (increased financial support) and boosts children's wage returns. This study not only enriches the understanding of the potential impact of LTCI but also offers new insights into the evolution of internal migration in developing countries.