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ID: 134860

Health shocks, village elections, and household income: Evidence from rural China / Zhang, Jing; Gan, Li ; Xu, Lixin Colin ; Yao, Yang

Yao, Yang	Article
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Using a sample of 1185 households in 48 Chinese villages for the period 1987–2002, we study the effects of major health shocks on household income and the role played by village elections in mitigating these effects. Major health shocks are defined by abnormal increases in a household's medical expenditure. Our results show that a major health shock reduces households' net income significantly and that village elections alleviate such adverse impacts by almost half. The main mechanism behind this effect is increased coverage of health care insurance, which helps households smooth their consumption when major health shocks happen.

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ID: 147447

Telecommunication externality on migration: evidence from Chinese villages / Lu, Yi; Xie, Huihua ; Xu, Lixin Colin

Lu, Yi	Journal Article
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We use a unique data set of Chinese villages to investigate whether access to telecommunications, in particular, landline phones, increases the likelihood of outmigration. By using regional and time variations in the installation of landline phones, our difference-in-difference estimation shows that the access to landline phones increases the ratio of out-migrant workers by 2 percentage points, or about 51% of the sample mean in China. The results remain robust to a battery of validity checks. Furthermore, landline phones affect outmigration through two channels: information access on job opportunities and especially timely contact with left-behind family members. Our findings underscore the positive migration externality of expanding telecommunications access in rural areas, especially in places where migration potential is large.

Key Words

Migration ; China ; Telecommunications ; Psychological Costs ; Landline Phones ; Network Effect

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