{"id":{"repo_id":"buffalo","oai_identifier":"oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/78570"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/buffalo/oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/78570","repository":{"repo_id":"buffalo","name":"Buffalo","base_url":"https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Essays on Education and Health in Rural China","abstract":"Ph.D.","abstract_html":"Ph.D.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Wang, Yiru; 0000-0001-9270-7449"],"institution":"State University of New York at Buffalo","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Liu, Zhiqiang","Economics"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2018,"date_issued":"2018-10-26T02:55:44Z","date_published":"2018-10-26T02:55:44Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:12Z","subjects":["economics"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10477/78570","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Liu, Zhiqiang","Economics"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Wang, Yiru; 0000-0001-9270-7449"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2018-10-26T02:55:44Z","2018","2018-08-08 09:12:47"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["State University of New York at Buffalo"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text","Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["economics"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/78570"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Ph.D.","This dissertation consists of three chapters on the topics of education and health in rural China. The first chapter investigates the effects of the so-called “two waivers, one subsidy” education policy on school enrollment and nutrition intakes of children from low-income families in rural China. Using the difference-in-difference identification strategy and data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, we find that this policy has a significant effect on children at the junior high school age, increasing their school enrollment by 8.8 percentage points. Looking further into possible differential effects of the policy across gender, we find that the policy is more effective at raising the enrollment of male students. We also find some evidence for the policy’s impact on protein intakes for junior high school-aged children, which suggests that part of the savings on family’s out-of-pocket education expenses is transferred to more food consumption. The second chapter analyzes the causal effect of children’s education on changes of parental health in rural China. Using supply-side variation in schooling as the instrumental variable for children’s education and data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), we find that parents with more highly educated children are less likely to experience deterioration in health, measured by indicators of physical limitations and mental capacity, than those with less educated children. For example, our estimates suggest that an additional year of children’s education could reduce the probability of declining parental health in terms of activities of dialing living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), episodic memory, mental intactness by 2.6, 4.3, 3.4 and 3.8 percentage points, respectively. In addition, having more highly educated children could reduce parents’ chances of reporting health deterioration as well as being diagnosed with certain chronic diseases. The estimated effects of children’s education on older parents and mothers are especially substantial and significant. The results are robust to a variety of measures of parental health and children’s education. In addition, we investigate two possible channels through which children’s education may affect parental health. One is health behavior of parents, and the other is parents’ utilization of healthcare services. We find that parents of more highly educated children are less likely to drink frequently or smoke heavily, and are less likely to engage in vigorous physical activities. More highly educated children have also been shown to induce their parents to undergo regular physical examinations and to consistently undergo medical treatments if they are experiencing negative health conditions. In the third chapter, we analyze whether small increases in income for elderly inhabitants of rural China have an impact on health behavior, use of medical services and subjective well-being. Using data from CHARLS and regression discontinuity identification strategy, we find that the small increase in permanent income resulting from the new rural pension program increases the chances of the recipient undergoing physical examinations, taking exercise, and feeling hopeful about the future. The pension also helps reduce the number of cigarettes that surveyed smokers consume. These results suggest that income affects health through altering health behavior and utilization of health care."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Essays on Education and Health in Rural China"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Liu, Zhiqiang","Economics"],"dc:creator":["Wang, Yiru; 0000-0001-9270-7449"],"dc:date":["2018-10-26T02:55:44Z","2018","2018-08-08 09:12:47"],"dc:description":["Ph.D.","This dissertation consists of three chapters on the topics of education and health in rural China. The first chapter investigates the effects of the so-called “two waivers, one subsidy” education policy on school enrollment and nutrition intakes of children from low-income families in rural China. Using the difference-in-difference identification strategy and data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, we find that this policy has a significant effect on children at the junior high school age, increasing their school enrollment by 8.8 percentage points. Looking further into possible differential effects of the policy across gender, we find that the policy is more effective at raising the enrollment of male students. We also find some evidence for the policy’s impact on protein intakes for junior high school-aged children, which suggests that part of the savings on family’s out-of-pocket education expenses is transferred to more food consumption. The second chapter analyzes the causal effect of children’s education on changes of parental health in rural China. Using supply-side variation in schooling as the instrumental variable for children’s education and data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), we find that parents with more highly educated children are less likely to experience deterioration in health, measured by indicators of physical limitations and mental capacity, than those with less educated children. For example, our estimates suggest that an additional year of children’s education could reduce the probability of declining parental health in terms of activities of dialing living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), episodic memory, mental intactness by 2.6, 4.3, 3.4 and 3.8 percentage points, respectively. In addition, having more highly educated children could reduce parents’ chances of reporting health deterioration as well as being diagnosed with certain chronic diseases. The estimated effects of children’s education on older parents and mothers are especially substantial and significant. The results are robust to a variety of measures of parental health and children’s education. In addition, we investigate two possible channels through which children’s education may affect parental health. One is health behavior of parents, and the other is parents’ utilization of healthcare services. We find that parents of more highly educated children are less likely to drink frequently or smoke heavily, and are less likely to engage in vigorous physical activities. More highly educated children have also been shown to induce their parents to undergo regular physical examinations and to consistently undergo medical treatments if they are experiencing negative health conditions. In the third chapter, we analyze whether small increases in income for elderly inhabitants of rural China have an impact on health behavior, use of medical services and subjective well-being. Using data from CHARLS and regression discontinuity identification strategy, we find that the small increase in permanent income resulting from the new rural pension program increases the chances of the recipient undergoing physical examinations, taking exercise, and feeling hopeful about the future. The pension also helps reduce the number of cigarettes that surveyed smokers consume. These results suggest that income affects health through altering health behavior and utilization of health care."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/78570"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["State University of New York at Buffalo"],"dc:rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"dc:subject":["economics"],"dc:title":["Essays on Education and Health in Rural China"],"dc:type":["Text","Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:12Z"}