The Impact of Social Security Expenditure on Human Common Development: Evidence from China’s Provincial Panel Data

Abstract

With the rapid development of the social economy, human development has been greatly improved. However, the gap between rich and poor still exists, which restricts the further development of society. In order to study the relationship between social security expenditure and human common development, we constructed, for this paper, the Human Common Development Index, and made a regression analysis between social security expenditure and human common development. The results showed that, in China, obvious and remarkable progress has been made in human common development. There were differences between regions—high in the east and low in the west—but the gap between regions was narrowing. There was an inverted U-shaped relationship between social security expenditure and human common development. At present, social security expenditure per capita in most provinces has not reached the inflection point. The Chinese government should pay attention to the important role of social security, optimize social security expenditure, and improve the accuracy and effectiveness of social security expenditure. In addition, the Chinese government should also improve the urbanization rate and promote economic development.