Pensions, Provinces, and Partial Privatization in China: External Sources of Reform.

This paper seeks to explain the divergent outcomes of pension reform in China as a strategic response by local governments to inflows (and outflows) of labor and capital. I argue that local governments developed qualitatively different pension and social insurance arrangements that corresponded to two factors: population aging, and the extent of labor and capital inflows. The behavior of local labor agencies is consistent with the tenets of resource dependence theory, which predicts that organizations will adopt strategies to gain control of, or lessen their dependence upon, crucial external resources. The empirical tests of the argument involve provincial-level quantitative data as well as elite interviews. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]