Health Reform, Population Policy and Child Nutritional Status in China
23 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2016
Date Written: April 1, 2008
Abstract
This paper examines the determinants of child nutritional status in seven provinces of China during the 1990s, focusing specifically on the role of two areas of public policy, namely health system reforms and the one child policy. The empirical relationship between income and nutritional status, and the extent to which that relationship is mediated by access to quality healthcare and being an only-child, is investigated using ordinary least squares, random effects, fixed effects, and instrumental variables models. In the preferred model - a fixed effects model where income is instrumented - the author find that being an only-child increases height-for-age z-scores by 0.119 of a standard deviation. The magnitude of this effect is found to be largely gender and income neutral. By contrast, access to quality healthcare and income is not found to be significantly associated with improved nutritional status in the preferred model. Data are drawn from four waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey.
Keywords: Health Monitoring & Evaluation, Population Policies, Transport Economics Policy & Planning, Health Systems Development & Reform, Rural Poverty Reduction
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
Economic Status and Health in Childhood: The Origins of the Gradient
By Anne Case, Darren H. Lubotsky, ...
-
Economic Status and Health in Childhood: The Origins of the Gradient
By Anne Case, Darren H. Lubotsky, ...
-
Health Insurance Eligibility, Utilization of Medical Care, and Child Health
By Janet Currie and Jonathan Gruber
-
Is the Impact of Health Shocks Cushioned by Socioeconomic Status? the Case of Low Birthweight
By Janet Currie and Rosemary Hyson
-
Mortality, Education, Income, and Inequality Among American Cohorts
By Angus Deaton and Christina H. Paxson
-
Health, Inequality, and Economic Development
By Angus Deaton
-
From Cradle to Grave? The Lasting Impact of Childhood Health and Circumstance
By Anne Case, Angela R. Fertig, ...
-
Socioeconomic Status and Health: Why is the Relationship Stronger for Older Children?
By Janet Currie and Mark Stabile
-
What Do Self-Reported, Objective, Measures of Health Measure?
By Michael Baker, Mark Stabile, ...