IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v277y2021ics0277953621002409.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Protective effect of adult children's education on parental survival in China: Gender differences and underlying mechanisms

Author

Listed:
  • Cui, Ying
  • Liu, Hong
  • Zhao, Liqiu

Abstract

This study investigates whether adult children's education has a protective effect on parental survival, using data from all waves (2010–2018) of the China Family Panel Studies. We exploited the exogenous temporal and geographical variations in the enforcement of the 1986 compulsory schooling laws in China to construct an instrumental variable (IV) for adult children's education. The IV estimates indicated that the law-induced higher education of adult children led to sizeable improvements in the likelihood of paternal survival, although it had no significant effect on maternal survival. The protective effect on paternal survival was mainly driven by better-educated daughters, while sons' education had only a modest positive effect on maternal survival. Further evidence suggested that such heterogeneity by the gender of adult children might mainly come through more informal caregiving from better-educated daughters to older fathers with a limited role played by financial support from adult children.

Suggested Citation

  • Cui, Ying & Liu, Hong & Zhao, Liqiu, 2021. "Protective effect of adult children's education on parental survival in China: Gender differences and underlying mechanisms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:277:y:2021:i:c:s0277953621002409
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113908
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953621002409
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113908?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David M. Cutler & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2012. "Education and Health: Insights from International Comparisons," NBER Working Papers 17738, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Torssander, Jenny, 2014. "Adult children's socioeconomic positions and their parents' mortality: A comparison of education, occupational class, and income," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 148-156.
    3. De Neve, Jan-Walter & Fink, Günther, 2018. "Children’s education and parental old age survival – Quasi-experimental evidence on the intergenerational effects of human capital investment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 76-89.
    4. Esther Friedman & Robert Mare, 2014. "The Schooling of Offspring and the Survival of Parents," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(4), pages 1271-1293, August.
    5. Lundborg, Petter & Majlesi, Kaveh, 2018. "Intergenerational transmission of human capital: Is it a one-way street?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 206-220.
    6. K. Bolin & B. Lindgren & P. Lundborg, 2008. "Informal and formal care among single‐living elderly in Europe," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 393-409, March.
    7. Hu, Bo, 2020. "Trajectories of informal care intensity among the oldest-old Chinese," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    8. Lee, Yeonjin, 2018. "Adult children's educational attainment and the cognitive trajectories of older parents in South Korea," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 76-85.
    9. Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2005. "The Relationship Between Education and Adult Mortality in the United States," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(1), pages 189-221.
    10. Ma, Mingming, 2019. "Does children's education matter for parents’ health and cognition? Evidence from China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 222-240.
    11. Solveig Cunningham & Kathryn Yount & Michal Engelman & Emily Agree, 2013. "Returns on Lifetime Investments in Children in Egypt," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 699-724, April.
    12. Yahirun, Jenjira J. & Sheehan, Connor M. & Hayward, Mark D., 2017. "Adult children's education and changes to parents' physical health in Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 93-101.
    13. Zachary Zimmer & Linda Martin & Mary Ofstedal & Yi-Li Chuang, 2007. "Education of adult children and mortality of their elderly parents in Taiwan," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(2), pages 289-305, May.
    14. Jenny Torssander, 2013. "From Child to Parent? The Significance of Children’s Education for Their Parents’ Longevity," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 637-659, April.
    15. Huang, Wei, 2015. "Understanding the Effects of Education on Health: Evidence from China," IZA Discussion Papers 9225, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    17. Lee Lillard & Robert Willis, 1997. "Motives for interqenerational transfers: Evidence from Malaysia," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 34(1), pages 115-134, February.
    18. Pei, Yaolin & Cong, Zhen & Wu, Bei, 2020. "Education, adult children's education, and depressive symptoms among older adults in rural China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    19. Fang Cai & John Giles & Philip O'Keefe & Dewen Wang, 2012. "The Elderly and Old Age Support in Rural China : Challenges and Prospects," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2249, December.
    20. repec:wbk:wbpubs:6007 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Huichao Du & Yun Xiao & Liqiu Zhao, 2021. "Education and gender role attitudes," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 475-513, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lei, Lei & Yu, Dandan & Zhou, Yang, 2023. "Better educated children, better Internet-connected elderly parents," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(4).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ma, Mingming, 2019. "Does children's education matter for parents’ health and cognition? Evidence from China," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 222-240.
    2. Nan Jiang, 2019. "Adult Children’s Education and Later-Life Health of Parents in China: The Intergenerational Effects of Human Capital Investment," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 257-278, August.
    3. Li, Yaoyue & Wang, Guixin & Li, Guofeng, 2021. "Educational attainment of offspring and obesity among older adults in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    4. Lei, Lei & Yu, Dandan & Zhou, Yang, 2023. "Better educated children, better Internet-connected elderly parents," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(4).
    5. De Neve, Jan-Walter & Kawachi, Ichiro, 2017. "Spillovers between siblings and from offspring to parents are understudied: A review and future directions for research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 56-61.
    6. Jiang, Nan & Kaushal, Neeraj, 2020. "How children's education affects caregiving: Evidence from parent’s last years of life," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    7. Ning Wei & Lülin Zhou & Wenhao Huang, 2022. "Does an upward intergenerational educational spillover effect exist? The effect of children’s education on Chinese parents’ health," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 69-89, March.
    8. Yanna Ma & Zhanli Ma & Moqin Yang, 2022. "Does Adult Children’s Education Increase Parents’ Longevity in China?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-15, November.
    9. De Neve, Jan-Walter & Harling, Guy, 2017. "Offspring schooling associated with increased parental survival in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 149-157.
    10. Torres, Jacqueline M. & Yahirun, Jenjira J. & Sheehan, Connor & Ma, Mingming & Sáenz, Joseph, 2021. "Adult child socio-economic status disadvantage and cognitive decline among older parents in Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    11. Youlu Zhang & Li Zhang & Fulian Li & Liqian Deng & Jiaoli Cai & Linyue Yu, 2022. "Offspring Education and Parents’ Health Inequality in China: Evidence from Spillovers of Education Reform," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-26, February.
    12. Elisabeth Artmann & Hessel Oosterbeek & Bas van der Klaauw, 2022. "Do Doctors Improve the Health Care of Their Parents? Evidence from Admission Lotteries," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 164-184, July.
    13. De Neve, Jan-Walter & Fink, Günther, 2018. "Children’s education and parental old age survival – Quasi-experimental evidence on the intergenerational effects of human capital investment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 76-89.
    14. Cornelissen, Thomas & Dang, Thang, 2022. "The multigenerational impacts of educational expansion: Evidence from Vietnam," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. Lundborg, Petter & Majlesi, Kaveh, 2018. "Intergenerational transmission of human capital: Is it a one-way street?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 206-220.
    16. Dursun, Bahadır & Cesur, Resul & Mocan, Naci, 2018. "The Impact of Education on Health Outcomes and Behaviors in a Middle-Income, Low-Education Country," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 94-114.
    17. Samuli Knüpfer & Elias Rantapuska & Matti Sarvimäki, 2023. "Social Interaction in the Family: Evidence from Investors’ Security Holdings," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(4), pages 1297-1327.
    18. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2017_025 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Yahirun, Jenjira J. & Sheehan, Connor M. & Hayward, Mark D., 2017. "Adult children's education and changes to parents' physical health in Mexico," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 93-101.
    20. Ning Wei & Dingqiang Sun, 2023. "Children’s education and parents’ dietary nutrient intake: an empirical study based on rural China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    21. Knüpfer, Samuli & Rantapuska, Elias & Sarvimäki, Matti, 2017. "Social interaction in the family: Evidence from investors’ security holdings," Research Discussion Papers 25/2017, Bank of Finland.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:277:y:2021:i:c:s0277953621002409. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.