TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Li, Jinkai
AU  - Luo, Erga
AU  - Cockx, Bart
        TI  - The Long-Term Impact of Parental Migration on the Health of Young Left-behind Children
        PY  - 2023/Nov/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 16596
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp16596
        AB  - In 2015, 15% of all children in China were left behind in the countryside because at least one of their parents migrated to a city. We implement an event study analysis between 2010 and 2018 on five waves of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to investigate the dynamic effects of parental migration on the health of left behind young children (LBC). While we find a gradual increase in medical expenditures, we do not detect any significant impact on the incidence of sickness. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the incidence of overweight declines gradually since their parents' first migration and reports suggestive evidence for mental health improvement. We argue that these long-term positive effects on health and health consumption can be explained by the transitory nature of migration, the high-quality substitution of the caregiver role by grandparents, and by a reorientation in family expenditures, partly induced by government policy.
        KW  - young left-behind children
KW  - parental migration
KW  - Hukou system
KW  - long-term impact on health
KW  - event study analysis
KW  - mechanisms analysis
        ER  -