Migration and young child nutrition: evidence from rural China Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. The unprecedented large-scale rural-to-urban migration in China has left many rural children living apart from their parents. In this study, we examine the impact of parental migration on the nutritional status of young children in rural areas. We use the interaction terms between wage growth, by gender, in provincial capital cities and initial village migrant networks as instrumental variables to account for migration selection. Our results show that parental migration has no significant effect on the height of children, but it improves their weight. We provide suggestive evidence that the improvement in weight may be achieved through increased access to tap water in migrant households.

published proceedings

  • Journal of Population Economics

altmetric score

  • 5.85

author list (cited authors)

  • Mu, R., & Brauw, A. D.

citation count

  • 65

complete list of authors

  • Mu, Ren||Brauw, Alan de

publication date

  • January 2015