Employing data from the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) and China Family Panel Studies (CFPS)

this paper explores the economic well-being and income sources of low-income elderly households historically and focuses on the economic role of the government from the perspective of "income packaging". It finds that the economic well-being measured by adjusted disposable income has improved

and the government has played a larger role in income support for low-income elderly households. But the economic well-being measured by relative poverty and Gini coefficient has worsened

mainly because the combined of income from market

family

asset and government is not sufficient to maintain stable economic well-being

especially the earnings of the elderly is unlikely to meet the needs of the households. This implies that policymakers should focus on the elderly households rather than the elderly as individuals

and combine various social programs and income sources to sustain a multi-pillar income support system.