Yi D; AcademyHealth. Meeting (2005 : Boston, Mass.).
Abstr AcademyHealth Meet. 2005; 22: abstract no. 4096.
School of Public Health, Health Policy and Administration, 1103B McGavran-Greenberg Hall, CB#7411, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7411 Tel. (919)968-3624 Fax
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The proposed study investigates the effect of health on labor force participation of aged 40-70 during the economic transition in China, which experienced huge social and economic transition in the late 20th century. An extensive literature demonstrates that there are substantial returns in labor markets to investments in education, but comparatively few studies have examined the returns to other dimensions of human capital, such as health, particularly for developing countries. This study seeks to answer the following questions: 1) Did individuals with lower stocks of baseline health contribute less to economic growth, as measured by labor force participation? 2) Did negative health shocks cause substantial near-term changes in labor force participation? 3) Were any negative effects of poor health buffered by factors such as education levels, marital status, urbanization, age? STUDY DESIGN: A wide array of health indicators include self-reported general health status, anthropometric measure such as height and body mass index (BMI), a clinical measure of blood pressure and one of the activities of daily living, mobility. Dependent variable is labor force participation defined by working status at the point of survey. The rich panel design of CHNS allows lagged effects model, growth model, fixed effects and instrumental variables estimators to better identify the causal effects of interest. POPULATION STUDIED: This study uses the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) panel household data set collected by the Carolina Population Center in 1989, 1991, 1993, and 1997. The overall age range during four waves is 21 to 84 because adults aged 30 and above in any survey year are included in the analytic file. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: BMI and blood pressure have statistically significant effects on LFP and the magnitude of coefficient shows dose-response relationship. Lighter persons are more likely to work than heavier ones and people with hypertension or those who are taking anti-hypertensive drug are less likely to work. General health status and mobility also show significant effects. But height does not have strong effect on LFP, which might be due to uncontrolled heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS: Health, in general, has strong effects on labor force participation among Chinese adults when per capita asset, education, marital status, region, and so forth are controlled. BMI shows an opposite results to the usual prediction, which may be due to characteristics of Chinese situation and agricultural labor. Hypertension is a clinical measurement with a significant effect on LFP. Further studies with longer follow-ups and more reasonable instrumental variables are strongly required. IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY, DELIVERY OR PRACTICE: Social and economic changes stirred in a transition economy may render many people without health stock less likely to participate in the labor force. The differential investment in human capital like health may be one of the reasons for the increasing gaps among different social groups and different regions. Long term investment in health is needed to be taken into account for policy decision making.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Adult
- China
- Demography
- Developing Countries
- Educational Status
- Employment
- Family Characteristics
- Health
- Health Status
- Humans
- Marital Status
- Population
- Public Policy
- Research
- Socioeconomic Factors
- Urbanization
- Women
- education
- manpower
- hsrmtgs
UI: 103623559
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