Population ageing and the associated social risks have become a significant governance challenge for many industrialized countries. In response to this challenge, the WHO proposed the “Active Ageing” policy framework, which highlights “health, participation, and security” as the three pillars for enhancing quality of life in old age (1). Within this framework, social participation of older adults is considered a core ingredient, aiming to encourage their involvement in social, cultural, and spiritual activities. The active aging model envisions older adults not only as beneficiaries of social services but also as active participants who can contribute to society through various forms of paid and unpaid work (2). Based on this initiative, many developing countries have implemented social security and welfare policies to address poverty and vulnerability in old age (3). Among these measures, public pensions serve as a fundamental form of security, providing essential economic support to older adults, thereby fostering a foundation for improved health and social participation. Extensive empirical research has shown that social pensions can effectively improve the health and well-being of older adults (4). However, existing studies have not fully examined the causal impact of public pensions on the social participation of older adults, such as their involvement in volunteer activities.

Conceptually, as an important form of social participation, community volunteering refers to productive and altruistic activities (5) in which older adults voluntarily engage in activities and services that benefit the local community (6). Volunteering among older adults is a crucial pathway to achieving active aging, as it not only brings health benefits to older adults (7) but also contributes positively to the community (8). Specifically, by offering help to those in need, older adults who participate in volunteer activities expand their social networks, gain increased social support, and, in turn, obtain a form of informal insurance against future risks¹.

Theoretically, there are two competing views regarding the relationship between state-led pensions and community volunteering among older adults. The first is the crowding-out hypothesis, which suggests that welfare states and their generous social spending take responsibility away from civil society and individuals, thereby impeding the formation of social ties and social capital (9). According to this view, public pensions provide an alternative form of risk-sharing for older adults, thus weakening their motivation to engage in mutual support activities (7). Alternatively, the crowding-in hypothesis posits that public pensions not only offer economic security and income support for older adults to participate in volunteer activities but also narrow income gaps across social strata, fostering a culture of solidarity and mutual assistance. Consequently, state-led pensions are believed to increase the willingness of older adults to participate in volunteering (10).

Empirically, much of existing literature largely employs cross-national comparisons to examine the relationship between welfare policies and volunteering participation, yet the findings remain inconclusive. Some studies have found significant evidence of the crowding-in effect. For instance, Ackermann et al.’s analysis of 23 European countries found that volunteering is higher in more generous welfare states. In particular, pension welfare significantly strengthens volunteering among the retired and older adults (11). Similarly, Visser et al. found that higher social spending on healthcare and old-age pensions promotes social contact among older adults (12). On the other hand, other studies have provided evidence supporting the crowding-out view. For example, Stadelmann-Steffen found that the scale of welfare spending has a negative impact on volunteer participation, particularly for groups with higher socioeconomic status (9). Suzuki also observed that large-scale austerity measures by the government significantly raise the likelihood of individual volunteer participation, suggesting a substitution effect (13). Additionally, some studies have found no significant impact of welfare provision on civic volunteerism (9, 14). This inconsistency in findings underscores the need for further examination of these competing views.

However, existing researches have the following limitations. First, most studies focus on developed countries, with limited attention paid to developing countries. In developed countries, the formal welfare system, characterized by generous spending on pensions, healthcare, and social services, effectively meet the vast majority of citizens’ security needs (15). In contrast, in developing countries with less developed social protection systems, individuals rely more heavily on informal social support from relatives, friends, and community members to establish economic safety nets and sustain livelihoods, such as through altruistic donations and community volunteering. Consequently, the crowding-out effect of welfare policies is more likely to occur in developing countries. Second, scholars have argued that it is inappropriate to assume that welfare policies have uniform effects on all individuals (12, 16). In other words, the impact of welfare policies may vary across social groups. Third, considering the inability to control for all confounding variables that simultaneously affect both welfare provision and voluntary participation, previous studies using cross-national comparison methods may be biased. Additionally, estimates based on country-level data may suffer from ecological fallacy. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the causal effects at the micro level to complement the current research findings (10, 17).

As the largest developing country, China provides an ideal case for examining the relationship between pension programs and volunteer participation among older adults. On the one hand, to address poverty and improve quality of life, the Chinese government has established the world’s most extensive basic pension system. This system currently includes three types of basic pension programs targeting different populations: the Urban–Rural Resident Social Pension (URRSP), the Enterprise Employee Basic Pension (EEBP), and the Government and Institution Pension (GIP). This study focuses on the URRSP, which serves jobless urban and rural residents. Unlike employer-funded pensions, the URRSP is financed by subsidies from both central and local governments (18) and can be considered a poverty-alleviation policy with transfer-payment characteristics. In terms of pension benefits, China’s basic pension system exhibits a typical stratified structure, resembling a pyramid (19). This design not only causes “identity segmentation” but also exacerbates income inequality among older adults (20). As of 2022, the average benefit level for basic pensions was 1,745 CNY per month. However, the average monthly benefit for EEBP participants was 3,605 CNY, while for URRSP participants, it was just 204 CNY (21). On the other hand, given the low benefit levels of the urban–rural residents’ basic pension, which are insufficient to support basic livelihood (22), older individuals covered by this insurance still rely on informal social support from family, friends, and the community to cope with life risks (7, 23). Within the context of China’s stratified social insurance system, limited and unequal pension income fails to provide the necessary economic resources to support older adults’ participation in volunteer activities. Instead, it tends to amplify perceptions of social distance between individuals, undermines the foundation of trust, community norms, and collective consciousness, ultimately reducing individuals’ willingness to invest in social relationships with peers and neighbors (24). Consequently, we hypothesize that the URRSP, being at the bottom of the stratified pension system, will have a significant crowding-out effect on volunteer participation among older adults.

In summary, using the 2018 data from the China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS), this article employs propensity score matching and the control function approach to empirically examine the impact of the Urban–Rural Resident Social Pension (URRSP) on community volunteering among older adults. In particular, we investigate whether this relationship varies across social groups. The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 introduces the data and methodology; Section 3 presents the empirical results and heterogeneity analysis; Section 4 provides interpretations and discussions of the findings; and Section 5 offers concluding remarks and policy implications.

As the largest developing country, China has established the world’s largest social pension system in terms of coverage over the past few decades. However, this system exhibits distinct stratification, with significant disparities in benefits across different pension schemes, exacerbating income inequality among older adults. Among these, the Urban–Rural Resident Social Pension is at the bottom of the stratified pension system, covering the widest population but providing the lowest pension income, far below that of the other two types of public pension schemes (i.e., the GIP and the EEBP). In this context, this study focuses on the impact of the URRSP on volunteering participation among older adults and the heterogeneity of its effects.

Firstly, our study reveals that, overall, the Urban–Rural Resident Social Pension has a significant negative effect on the participation of older adults in community volunteering, supporting the crowding-out hypothesis. This can be attributed to several factors. On one hand, the benefits provided by the URRSP are limited and cannot cover the basic living standards, thus failing to exert the income effect. Under such circumstances, older adults still need to work to support themselves, lacking both financial resources and free time to engage in volunteer activities (24). On the other hand, the income inequality intensified by the stratified pension system undermines the foundation of trust, amplifies perceived cultural distance, and erodes the norms of mutual assistance. These factors collectively diminish the motivation of older individuals to participate in volunteering activities (20, 33). Additionally, as a poverty alleviation policy, the URRSP primarily targets populations without non-agricultural employment, which can lead to a welfare stigma effect. This diminishes beneficiaries’ perceived fairness, reducing their willingness to engage in volunteering (34).

Secondly, our study also finds that the crowding-out effect of the URRSP varies across different social groups. Specifically, the crowding-out effect on volunteer participation is significantly stronger among older individuals with higher socio-economic status (i.e., those with highly educated, healthy, and wealthy) compared to those with lower socio-economic status. Scholars have argued that we should not assume that welfare policies have the same impact on all groups (9). In general, participation in volunteer activities requires individuals to incur costs, while the benefits of volunteering are mainly immaterial, such as helping others and self-fulfillment (35). For higher social class, they not only have the economic resources and free time required to engage in volunteer activities, but they are also more motivated by the non-material rewards that such activities bring. As a result, they are more inclined to participate in volunteering (36). In liberal states with insufficient welfare support, privileged groups are motivated by altruism and moral obligation to help economically disadvantaged groups by offering private assistance and social support (37). However, when the state establishes basic pension systems and provides individuals with living security, this weakens the moral obligations and social responsibility of privileged groups, thus reducing their engagement in altruistic volunteer activities (17). Therefore, the establishment of social pensions has a stronger crowding-out effect on the volunteer participation of older adults in higher socio-economic groups. In contrast, for lower social classes, participation in social pension schemes can provide economic resources and reduce financial burdens, thereby enhancing their ability to engage in volunteer activities. Moreover, existing studies have shown that disadvantaged older individuals benefit more from community activities, such as improved health and lower risks of depression (4). As a result, the impact of social pension on the volunteer participation of lower socio-economic groups is not substantial, and may even have a positive effect.

Finally, due to data limitations, this study cannot identify the specific mechanisms through which social pension influence participation in volunteer activities. However, we can infer potential mechanisms by combining our findings with existing research. Most cross-national studies based on developed countries find that state welfare policies have a “crowding-in” effect on volunteering, and this effect is believed to be driven by two mechanisms: the resource mechanism and the cultural mechanism (11). Specifically, generous welfare policies not only provide economic resources and income security for volunteering, but they also foster a culture of mutual help, which in turn promotes citizen involvement in volunteer activities. The resource mechanism applies only to the beneficiaries of welfare policies, while the cultural mechanism affects all groups. Unlike findings from studies in developed countries, the crowding-out effect identified in this study suggests that the limited income provided by the URRSP fails to promote older adults’ volunteering participation through the resource mechanism. Furthermore, the universality of this crowding-out effect across all older individuals implies the operation of a cultural mechanism. Put differently, the stratified pension system and the income inequality it engenders undermine cultural norms of solidarity, equality, and justice that foster pro-social attitudes, which in turn suppress the participation of older adults in community volunteering (38).

According to the strategic initiative of active aging, governments in developing countries worldwide are committed to establishing social security systems, especially pension system, to address the aging risks associated with industrial development. However, whether the establishment of social safety nets, as a formal welfare system, negatively impacts informal risk-sharing systems based on reciprocity—such as community volunteering—remains a subject of debate. This study uses data from the 2018 China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey and employs propensity score matching and control function methods to estimate the causal effect of the Urban–Rural Resident Social Pension on the participation of older adults in community volunteering. Our results show that, overall, participation in the URRSP has a significant negative effect on community volunteering among older adults, which supports the crowding-out hypothesis. This finding holds even after addressing issues such as selection bias and omitted variables. Furthermore, for older adults with higher socioeconomic status, the crowding-out effect of pension on volunteering would be stronger.

The findings of this study confirm the crowding-out hypothesis and provide some policy implications for promoting older adults’ volunteering to achieve active aging. Given that most studies suggest generous and universal welfare policies can enhance older adults’ social participation, including volunteer engagement (11), the Chinese government should increase fiscal subsidies to raise pension levels of the URRSP and reduce income disparities across different pension schemes. This approach would help promote community volunteering participation among older adults. Additionally, the government should allocate more resources to volunteer activities in urban and rural communities, establishing institutional safeguards and organizational support to encourage older adults’ active engagement in volunteering. Ultimately, these efforts would contribute to achieving the strategic goal of active aging.

However, this study has several limitations that warrant further research. First, as it relies on cross-sectional data from the 2018 CLASS survey, it cannot fully address the potential issue of reverse causality. Therefore, future research should employ longitudinal data to enhance the robustness of causality. Second, this study focuses solely on the URRSP and does not compare its impact with other pension schemes in China, such as the Enterprise Employee Basic Pension (EEBP) or the Government and Institution Pension (GIP). Examining the differential effects of various types of pension programs on older adults’ volunteering within a stratified social security system is a meaningful research question that requires further analysis. Finally, given the crucial role of cultural and social norms in shaping volunteering (39), future research should investigate the relationship between public pensions and older adults’ volunteering across different cultural and institutional contexts.