Social security and economic resilience - A new structural economics perspective

From the perspective of new structural economics, we explore the relationship between social security and economic resilience. Theoretical analysis reveals that, constrained by factor endowments and their structure, social security expenditures exert directionally heterogeneous impacts on economic resilience across different stages of economic development. Empirical findings indicate that, during the sample period, social security expenditures are detrimental to the improvement of economic resilience. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect of social security expenditures on economic resilience in eastern regions is stronger than in central and western regions. Furthermore, as the level of economic development rises, the impact of social security expenditures on economic resilience presents a positive U-shaped curvilinear relationship. Results of the threshold effect analysis demonstrate that when per capita GDP reaches 32,431.33 yuan, the impact of social security expenditures on economic resilience shifts from negative to positive. Finally, further research reveals that deviations from the optimal level of social security expenditures exert a significantly negative impact on economic resilience.