Paper short abstract:

This paper analysis the impact of young generations' migration action on the left-behind elders' happiness. We find: the elders' happiness is positively affected by their children's migration action. The economic support and the take-care time from the children affect most.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analysis the left-behind elders' happiness, based on studying the mechanism of young generations' migration action to the left-behind elder. Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS 2013) dataset, we find: the elders' happiness is positively affected by their children's migration action. When using the instrumental variables to correct the endogeneity, the result still holds. Dividing the groups by "whether have children migrant", the economic support and the take-care time from the children, and the elders' characters affect most to the elders. Further analysis shows the elder's transfer income increased 1.72 times through the children's migration action, but the take-care time reduced 117 days/year as a cost. The former has positive effect and the later has negative effect, in total, a positive effect. Considering migration is common in rural China, this paper's meaning lies on provides suggestion on the elder's sense of happiness. The policy implication is to improve the rural social welfare system, to set-off the negative effects from the young generation's migration action.