IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/4587.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Health reform, population policy and child nutritional status in China

Author

Listed:
  • Bredenkamp, Caryn

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Bredenkamp, Caryn, 2008. "Health reform, population policy and child nutritional status in China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4587, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4587
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2008/04/14/000158349_20080414095939/Rendered/PDF/wps4587.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:pri:cheawb:case_paxson_economic_status_paper is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Hsiao, William C. L., 1995. "The Chinese health care system: Lessons for other nations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 1047-1055, October.
    3. Doherty, Jim P. & Norton, Edward C. & Veney, James E., 2001. "China's one-child policy: the economic choices and consequences faced by pregnant women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 52(5), pages 745-761, March.
    4. Wolfe, Barbara L & Behrman, Jere R, 1992. "The Synthesis Economic Fertility Model: A Latent Variable Investigation of Some Critical Attributes," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 5(1), pages 1-16, February.
    5. Henderson, Gail & Akin, John & Zhiming, Li & Shuigao, Jin & Haijiang, Ma & Keyou, Ge, 1994. "Equity and the utilization of health services: Report of an eight-province survey in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 687-699, September.
    6. Barbara Entwisle & Feinian Chen, 2002. "Work Patterns Following a Birth in Urban and Rural China: A Longitudinal Study," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 18(2), pages 99-119, June.
    7. Liu, Xingzhu & Mills, Anne, 2002. "Financing reforms of public health services in China: lessons for other nations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(11), pages 1691-1698, June.
    8. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua, 2007. "China's (uneven) progress against poverty," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 1-42, January.
    9. Behrman, Jere R. & Deolalikar, Anil B., 1988. "Health and nutrition," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 14, pages 631-711, Elsevier.
    10. Christiaensen, Luc & Alderman, Harold, 2004. "Child Malnutrition in Ethiopia: Can Maternal Knowledge Augment the Role of Income?," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(2), pages 287-312, January.
    11. repec:pri:cheawb:case_paxson_economic_status_paper.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Smith, Lisa C. & Haddad, Lawrence James, 2000. "Explaining child malnutrition in developing countries: a cross-country analysis," Research reports 111, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. 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.
    14. Akin, John S. & Dow, William H. & Lance, Peter M., 2004. "Did the distribution of health insurance in China continue to grow less equitable in the nineties? Results from a longitudinal survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 293-304, January.
    15. Paul Schultz, 1976. "Determinants of Fertility: a Micro-economic Model of Choice," International Economic Association Series, in: Ansley J. Coale (ed.), Economic Factors in Population Growth, chapter 4, pages 89-135, Palgrave Macmillan.
    16. Handa, Sudhanshu, 1999. "Maternal Education and Child Height," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(2), pages 421-439, January.
    17. Duncan Thomas & John Strauss & Maria-Helena Henriques, 1991. "How Does Mother's Education Affect Child Height?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 26(2), pages 183-211.
    18. Behrman, Jere R. & Skoufias, Emmanuel, 2004. "Correlates and determinants of child anthropometrics in Latin America: background and overview of the symposium," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 335-351, December.
    19. Glewwe, Paul & Koch, Stefanie & Bui Linh Nguyen, 2002. "Child nutrition, economic growth, and the provision of health care services in Vietnam in the 1990s," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2776, The World Bank.
    20. Anne Case & Darren Lubotsky & Christina Paxson, 2002. "Economic Status and Health in Childhood: The Origins of the Gradient," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1308-1334, December.
    21. Lawrence Haddad & Harold Alderman & Simon Appleton & Lina Song & Yisehac Yohannes, 2003. "Reducing Child Malnutrition: How Far Does Income Growth Take Us?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 17(1), pages 107-131, June.
    22. Strauss, J. & Thomas, D., 1995. "Empirical Modeling of Household and Family Decisions," Papers 95-12, RAND - Reprint Series.
    23. Anson, Ofra, 2004. "Utilization of maternal care in rural HeBei Province, the People's Republic of China: individual and structural characteristics," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 197-206, November.
    24. Paul Glewwe, 1999. "Why Does Mother's Schooling Raise Child Health in Developing Countries? Evidence from Morocco," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(1), pages 124-159.
    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. Ioana M. PETRESCU, 2016. "The Humanitarian Impact Of Economic Sanctions," Europolity – Continuity and Change in European Governance - New Series, Department of International Relations and European Integration, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, vol. 10(2), pages 1-41.

    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. Bredenkamp, Caryn, 2009. "Policy-related determinants of child nutritional status in China: The effect of only-child status and access to healthcare," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 1531-1538, November.
    2. Karki Nepal, Apsara, 2018. "What matters more for child health: A father’s education or mother’s education?," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 10, pages 24-33.
    3. Indunil De Silva & Sudarno Sumarto, 2018. "Child Malnutrition in Indonesia: Can Education, Sanitation and Healthcare Augment the Role of Income?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 837-864, July.
    4. Headey, Derek & Hoddinott, John & Ali, Disha & Tesfaye, Roman & Dereje, Mekdim, 2015. "The Other Asian Enigma: Explaining the Rapid Reduction of Undernutrition in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 749-761.
    5. Suri, Tavneet & Boozer, Michael A. & Ranis, Gustav & Stewart, Frances, 2011. "Paths to Success: The Relationship Between Human Development and Economic Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 506-522, April.
    6. Yusuke Kamiya, 2009. "Economic analysis on the socioeconomic determinants of child malnutrition in Lao PDR," OSIPP Discussion Paper 09E007, Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University.
    7. Ervin, Paul A. & Bubak, Vit, 2019. "Closing the rural-urban gap in child malnutrition: Evidence from Paraguay, 1997–2012," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 1-10.
    8. Justin McCrary & Heather Royer, 2011. "The Effect of Female Education on Fertility and Infant Health: Evidence from School Entry Policies Using Exact Date of Birth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(1), pages 158-195, February.
    9. Deniz Karaoğlan & Dürdane Şirin Saraçoğlu, 2018. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: the Case of Turkey," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(3), pages 1051-1075, June.
    10. Pérez-Mesa, David & Marrero, Gustavo A. & Darias-Curvo, Sara, 2021. "Child health inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa," MPRA Paper 108801, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Deniz Karaoğlan & Dürdane Şirin Saracoğlu, 2016. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: The Case of Turkey," ERC Working Papers 1614, ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University, revised 2016.
    12. Aslam, Monazza & Kingdon, Geeta Gandhi, 2012. "Parental Education and Child Health—Understanding the Pathways of Impact in Pakistan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 2014-2032.
    13. Francesco Burchi, 2012. "Whose education affects a child’s nutritional status? From parents' to household's education," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 27(23), pages 681-704.
    14. Subha Mani, 2014. "Socioeconomic Determinants of Child Health: Empirical Evidence from Indonesia," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 28(1), pages 81-104, March.
    15. Divya Balasubramaniam & Santanu Chatterjee & David B. Mustard, 2020. "Public Versus Private Investment in Determining Child Health Outcomes: Evidence from India," Arthaniti: Journal of Economic Theory and Practice, , vol. 19(1), pages 28-60, June.
    16. Leandro Carvalho, 2012. "Childhood Circumstances and the Intergenerational Transmission of Socioeconomic Status," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(3), pages 913-938, August.
    17. repec:aer:wpaper:391 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Lindelow, Magnus, 2004. "Health care decisions as a family matter - intra-household education externalities and the utilization of health services," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3324, The World Bank.
    19. Chen, Yuyu & Li, Hongbin, 2009. "Mother's education and child health: Is there a nurturing effect?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 413-426, March.
    20. Agee, Mark D., 2010. "Reducing child malnutrition in Nigeria: Combined effects of income growth and provision of information about mothers' access to health care services," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(11), pages 1973-1980, December.
    21. Sirin Saracoglu & Deniz KARAOĞLAN**, 2017. "Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Early Childhood Health: The Case Of Turkey," EcoMod2017 10749, EcoMod.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health Monitoring&Evaluation; Population Policies; Transport Economics Policy&Planning; Health Systems Development&Reform; Rural Poverty Reduction;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wbk:wbrwps:4587. 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    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.