Design and Evaluation of a Social Security Program for Oldest Old in Yucatan

描述（由申请人提供）：墨西哥的社会保障规定并不普遍。有州和联邦的混合项目。2007年6月，墨西哥联邦政府宣布了一项针对人口少于2500人的城镇70岁或以上老年人的社会保障计划。2008年2月，这项措施扩大到居民少于1万人的城镇。尤卡坦州正在为居民超过1万人的城镇的75岁或以上的人实施社会保障方案。因此，尤卡坦计划与联邦计划没有重叠。75岁以上的老人每月领取约50美元的养老金，外加一个价值约7美元的食品篮子。65岁到75岁之间的人只能得到一个食物篮子。该项目将在5年内分阶段实施，并于2011年底完成。尤卡坦州政府要求兰德公司设计、实施和评估这一社会政策干预。一些项目参数仍有可能改变，例如多久给一次钱（一个月一次或更频繁），是否进行经济状况调查（国家的愿望），食物篮子的内容，75岁的截止年龄等。我们提出了一项研究，旨在为新的社会保障计划的最佳设计提供信息，并评估其对老年人健康和福祉的影响。我们将对对照组和实验组实施实验设计，并经常测量大量结果，包括健康（通过生物标志物和自我报告测量）、收入、财富、消费、经济活动、心理健康、社会交往等。此外，我们正在计划几个实验，以确定最优的程序参数（例如，食品篮子的内容，或支付方式）。这将是对一项非缴费养老金计划的首次评估，该计划采用实验设计，包括实验组和控制组，主要衡量对老年人健康结果的影响。该项目部分资金由尤卡坦州和兰德公司现有资源提供。我们请求支持研究人员设计评估和实验的努力，以及对结果的初步分析。与公共卫生有关：尤卡坦州正在为居民超过1万人的城镇的75岁或以上的人实施一项社会保障方案。我们将设计和评估程序，并使用随机设计的各种程序参数进行实验。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Social Security provision in Mexico is not universal. There is a mix of state and federal programs. In June 2007, the Mexican federal government announced a social security program for the elderly 70 years or over in towns with fewer than 2,500 inhabitants. This was extended to towns with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants in February 2008. The State of Yucatan is implementing a social security program for people 75 or over for towns above 10,000 inhabitants. Thus the Yucatan program does not have overlap with the Federal program. People over age 75 get a pension of about $50 per month plus a food basket, worth about $7. People between ages 65 and 75 only get a food basket. The program is phased in over a five year period, to be completed by the end of 2011. The state government of Yucatan has asked RAND to design, conduct, and evaluate this social policy intervention. Several program parameters are still subject to change, e.g. how often to give money (once a month or more often), whether to apply means testing (a desire by the state), content of the food basket, the age 75 cut-off, etc. We propose a research study that aims to inform the optimal design of the new social security program and that evaluates its effects on the health and well-being of the elderly recipients. We will implement an experimental design with control and treatment groups, and frequently measure a large number of outcomes, including health (measured by biomarkers and self-reports), income, wealth, consumption, economic activities, mental well-being, social contacts, etc. Moreover we are planning several experiments to determine optimal program parameters (e.g. the content of the food basket, or the mode of payment). This will be the first evaluation of a non-contributory pension program with an experimental design including treatment and control groups measuring the effects mainly on health outcomes of the oldest old. The project is partly financed by the State of Yucatan and by existing resources at RAND. We are asking support for the effort of the researchers in designing the evaluation and experiments, as well as preliminary analyses of the outcomes. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The State of Yucatan is implementing a social security program for people 75 or over for towns above 10,000 inhabitants. We will design and evaluate the program and experiment with various program parameters, using a randomized design.