No time to look after the kids: The unintended consequences of export expansion on child health* |
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| Authors: | Lihua Dai Qi Fan Yanyun Li Faqin Lin |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Economics, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China;2. School of Economics and Social Welfare, Zhejiang Shuren University, Hangzhou, China;3. School of International Trade and Economics, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China;4. College of Economics and Management, Academy of Global Food Economics and Policy, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China |
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| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the effect of export expansion on the health of children under the age of 6 years in China. Using the CHNS survey, we exploit trade exposure variation among regions after China's entry into the WTO to construct a difference-in-differences and instrumental variable identification. We show that 1% increase in export expansion over GDP share exacerbates child' illness rates by 0.6%, and the effect is more pronounced for less educated parents. The increasing workloads and having less time to look after the child account for the increasing illness rates, especially for mothers. |
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| Keywords: | child health China difference in difference export expansion instrument variable |
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