|
|
|
Sort Order |
|
|
|
Items / Page
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Srl | Item |
| 1 |
ID:
134868
|
|
|
|
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Rural-to-urban migrant workers are an under-represented group in China's health insurance system, and the status of their health and healthcare draws increasing attention. This paper uses the 2007–2010 State Council URBMI Household Survey data to evaluate the efficacy of major health insurance programs in improving the accessibility, affordability and appropriateness of healthcare among migrant workers. Based on the instrumental variable (IV) estimation that accounts for the endogeneity of insurance participation, we find that the Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI) is most effective in promoting physical exams and improving self-rated health status for migrant workers, while the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS), the Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance (URBMI) and commercial insurance show significant benefits in boosting preventive care utilization. However, the current programs are not effective in alleviating the financial burden of healthcare and promoting formal medical utilization among migrant workers, possibly due to the lack of systematic financing scheme for outpatient treatment and the segmentation between insurance platforms. Our study provides implications on reforming China's medical insurance system and migrant health policies.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2 |
ID:
136266
|
|
|
|
|
| Summary/Abstract |
The geographic maldistribution of health care resources is one of the most persistent characteristics of health care systems around the world. Based on China’s provincial-level panel data in 1949-2010, this paper empirically investigates whether the geographic distribution of health care resources is convergent or divergent in the long run and whether the rapid economic growth contributes to reducing the regional disparity in health care resources in China. Using a dynamic convergence model that controls unobserved provincial heterogeneity and spatial dependence, the empirical results provide much support for β-convergence in that the provinces with lower initial values of health care resources, including the densities of physicians and hospital beds, are seen to grow faster and to catch up with the provinces with higher initial stocks. In addition, we find that GDP per capita has a significant and non-linear impact on the convergence rate of health care resources, providing support for a Kuznets curve in China’s health sector. That is, the inequality in the distribution of health care resources follows an inverted “U” shape as income increases over time. An important implication of our study is that economic growth per se provides a built-in stabilizer to mitigate health inequality through the convergence of health care resources across regions in the long run.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 3 |
ID:
124560
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2013.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
This paper tests whether body size affects employment status in the Chinese urban labor market. Based on Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance (URBMI) survey data, we find that body size has an inverted U-shaped effect on the probability of being employed when human capital and other factors are controlled, indicating the existence of "body size discrimination". Based on our results, the optimal BMI for employment is estimated to be 22.7 for female and 24.3 for male. Further studies show that the "health channel" and the "esthetic channel" play an important role in forming the body size discrimination among both male and female. Furthermore, we find that the employment type (formal employment vs. informal employment) is also affected by body size. Our paper provides new evidence on the impact of body size on employment, and reveals new characteristics of the Chinese urban labor market.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 4 |
ID:
136277
|
|
|
|
|
| Summary/Abstract |
This paper estimates the intergenerational health transmission in China using the 1991–2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data. Three decades of persistent economic growth in China has been accompanied by high income inequality, which may in turn be caused by the inequality of opportunity in education and health. In this paper, we find that there is a strong correlation of health status between parent and their offspring in both the urban and rural sectors, suggesting the existence of intergenerational health inequality in China. The correlation is robust to various model specifications, including the control of unobserved household heterogeneity using instrumental variables. We also find that parents' socio-economic characteristics and environmental choices are strongly correlated with their own and their children's health, supporting the “nature–nurture interaction” hypothesis. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition further indicates that 15% to 27% of the rural–urban inequality of child health is attributable to the endowed inequality from their parents' health. An important policy implication of our study is that the increasing inequality of income and opportunity in China can be ameliorated through the improvement of the current generation's health status and living standards.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 5 |
ID:
147440
|
|
|
|
|
| Summary/Abstract |
This paper analyzes theoretically and empirically the impact of intergenerational transmission of human capital on the income mobility in China. We use a three-period overlapping-generations (OLG) model to show that the human capital transfer plays a remarkable role in determining the parent-to-offspring investment in human capital and the intergenerational elasticity of income. We then estimate a simultaneous equations model (SEM) using the 1989–2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data to verify our theoretical predictions. The results show that (i) human capital, measured by health and education, is directly transmitted from one generation to the next, reflecting the parent-induced inequality of development opportunities among offspring in China; (ii) the estimated intergenerational income elasticity increases from 0.429 to 0.481 when the direct transfer of human capital is accounted for, suggesting that omitting this mechanism would overestimate China's income mobility. Our findings provide policy implications on strengthening human capital investments among the disadvantaged groups, reinforcing reforms that promote equality of opportunity, and improving the efficiency of labor markets in China.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 6 |
ID:
161886
|
|
|
|
|
| Summary/Abstract |
China's fast economic growth in the past decades is accompanied by a rapid epidemiological transition from communicable to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). An important yet often neglected NCD is mental disorder, which accounts for 14% of global disease burden but has been paid relatively little research attention in China. This paper uses a nationally representative dataset to investigate the prevalence and correlates of depression and depressive symptoms among the adult population in China. Our results indicate that the prevalence rate of depression, estimated with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), is high (37.9% for depressive symptoms and 4.1% for depression) and unevenly distributed across regions and subpopulations. Specifically, women, older people and those who live in the central/western and rural areas are more likely to be depressed. We also find significant socioeconomic gradients in mental health: higher education and income levels are associated with lower likelihood of depression, especially among the lower socioeconomic groups. Our results indicate the urgent need for depression prevention and treatment in China (particularly in the economically less developed regions) through the expansion of primary mental health care resources and a reduction of socioeconomic inequalities.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 7 |
ID:
119211
|
|
|
|
|
| Publication |
2013.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
This paper estimates the labor supply functions for health care professionals in China using Census-based data in 2005. The rapid economic growth and population aging in China led to a substantial increase in the demand for health care services and the derived demand for health care professionals in recent years. However, the increase in the supply of doctors and nurses lags behind the growth in demand, raising the question of whether the excess demand should be met by expanding the health care manpower or by inducing the existing personnel to work more hours through wage increase. Our findings indicate that wage rate adjustment has a significant impact on the length of working time among the self-employed practitioners (with an estimated short-run elasticity of 0.575), while the labor supply of hospital employees is inelastic due to their fixed payment scheme. Instead, hours worked in the employee group are related to non-wage factors such as asset holdings and the hospital ownership type. An important policy implication of our study is that adjustments of labor compensation methods and hospital ownership structure are potentially effective approaches for coping with the excess demand for health care professionals and improving the quality of health care in China.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|