Health and Labor Force Participation in Transitional China
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This paper investigates the effects of health on changing labor force participation during China’s economic transition in the 1990s, a period of rapid economic growth but rising inequality. An important issue is the extent to which the economic gainers and losers are determined by individuals’ health capital. A growing literature has examined associations between health and labor outcomes in other settings, but thorough analysis is limited by the scarcity of longitudinal data as well as by the availability of health measures. This study utilizes panel data from the 1989-1997 waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey to estimate individual-level models of labor force participation levels and transitions as a function of current and lagged health levels and shocks. We analyze a variety of subjective and objective health indicators: self-rated general health status, body mass index, height, mobility,
and hypertension. Results generally indicate that people with better health were more likely to be in the labor force. However, these effects varied in by health indicator, age, marital status, education, and urban/rural/farming status.
JOUR
Yi, Deokhee
Dow, William H.
2009
1347