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Parental Migration Decisions and Child Health Outcomes: Evidence from China

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  • Lin, Carl

    (Bucknell University)

  • van der Meulen Rodgers, Yana

    (Rutgers University)

Abstract

This study uses migrant household survey data from 2008 and 2009 to examine how parental migration decisions are associated with the nutritional status of children in rural and urban China. Results from instrumental variables regressions show a substantial adverse effect of children's exposure to parental migration on height-for-age Z-scores of left-behind children relative to children who migrate with their parents. Additional results from a standard Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition, a quantile decomposition, and a counterfactual distribution analysis all confirm that children who are left behind in rural villages – usually because of the oppressive hukou system – have poorer nutritional status than children who migrate with their parents, and the gaps are biggest at lower portions of the distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Lin, Carl & van der Meulen Rodgers, Yana, 2018. "Parental Migration Decisions and Child Health Outcomes: Evidence from China," IZA Discussion Papers 11986, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11986
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Jason Hung & Mark Ramsden, 2021. "The Application of Human Capital Theory and Educational Signalling Theory to Explain Parental Influences on the Chinese Population’s Social Mobility Opportunities," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-7, September.
    2. Tutun Mukherjee & Som Sankar Sen, 2022. "Impact of CEO attributes on corporate reputation, financial performance, and corporate sustainable growth: evidence from India," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-50, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    migration; China; children; health; nutrition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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