Economic Condition, Education and Birth Order Effects on Health.

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2017-12
Authors
Wang, Chenggang
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Economics
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In the first chapter, we estimate the impact of the Great Recession of 2007-2009 on health outcomes in the United States. We show that a one percentage point increase in the unemployment rate resulted in a 7.8-8.8 percent increase in reports of poor health. Mental health was also adversely impacted and reports of chronic drinking increased. These effects were concentrated among those with strong labor force attachments. Whites, the less educated, and women were the most impacted demographic groups. The second chapter studies the causal effects of education on health in China. The Chinese Ministry of Education released the public announcement of re-institution of higher education in 1977, and it marked the end of 11 years of interruption to the formal education system in recent Chinese history. I use the 1977 Resuming College Entrance Exam Policy as IV and find that education has positive effects on health outcomes in China in general. The results suggest that highly educated people are taller and have stronger grip strength. Men with higher levels of education tend to have less number of IADL, stronger grip strength, and be taller. I also test some possible mechanisms through which education might affect health: cognition and health behaviors. The results do not find clearly education affects health through cognition and health behaviors. A growing literature in the economics and medical fields explore the birth order effect on health outcomes. However existing literature is limited to a select set of health indicators. The third chapter uses the recently released data – the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), I explore the birth order effect on health outcomes in China. I find some evidence to show that the first born child tends to have better health outcomes relative to those born later 4 when looking at the overall health status, number of IADL, and cognitive abilities. Moreover, the first born son has some advantage in health compared with the later born sons, while I find little birth order effects for women.
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