The Shift of Development Strategies and the Creation of New Rural Pensions in China.

This study investigates the question of why the Chinese central government decided to subsidize the creation of a new rural pension scheme in 2009. The study argues that the shift of development strategies from an export-oriented to a domestic consumption-driven one contributed to the adoption of new rural pensions. The study identifies three factors that led the central government to provide financial support for rural pensions as a way of increasing domestic consumption: learning by bureaucrats and experts, political leadership, and the urgency of increasing domestic consumption against the backdrop of the 2008 global economic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]