Alleviating Poverty or Discontent: The Impact of Social Assistance on Chinese Citizens' Views of Government

This study provides one of the first empirical tests of the political impact of dibao, China's anti-poverty cash transfer programme. Using the China Family Panel Study 2010 data set and a propensity score matching method, the authors examine whether and the extent to which dibao benefits have impacted recipients' assessment of local government performance. To investigate the heterogeneity effect of dibao, the authors conducted separate analyses for urban and rural samples. Results have shown that receiving dibao benefits had a significant and positive impact on citizens' assessment of local government in China. Nonetheless, the subsample results suggest that the positive and significant impacts of dibao benefits might be driven mainly by the rural sample. Overall, the study implies that China's dibao policy has achieved a mixed success in alleviating discontent and boosting popular support for the government.