Who supports intergenerational redistribution policy? Evidence from old-age allowance system in Thailand

Thailand has become an ageing society, and currently there are continuing policy debates regarding the pension system. This paper investigates the determinants of preferences over an intergenerational redistribution policy in Thailand, namely the old-age allowance system. Since 2009 the old-age allowance system has been a non-contributory social pension scheme for all older persons except retired national and local government officials who receive pension monthly and older persons in public residential care facilities. The paper uses nationally representative data collected in 2011 under the project to investigate people's knowledge of, and attitudes towards, the elderly. Employing logistic regression analysis, the paper looks into the factors correlated with: (1) whether an individual prefers the old-age allowance system to be universal or targeted, and (2) whether an individual is willing to pay more tax so that the elderly can receive more monthly allowance. The paper further divides the individuals into four groups based on the above two types of preferences, and uses multinomial logistic regression analysis to analyze the factors correlated with the likelihood of being in each group. The findings suggest that education, income, expectations regarding one's own need for the old-age allowance in the future, together with knowledge, understanding, and attitudes towards older persons are key determinants of individuals' preferences regarding the old-age allowance system.