THREE PAPERS ON HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA AFTER THE ECONOMIC REFORMS

Abstract

This dissertation comprises three papers on health and development in China after the economic reforms initiated in early 1980s. The first paper analyzes the relationship between income inequality and health and provides some evidence that income inequality negatively affects population health. The second paper looks at determinants of children?s height and shows that a group of individual, household and community factors all play important roles in determining Chinese children?s health in the 1990s. The third paper investigates the under-nutrition situation in China along with intra-household inequality. A U-shape relationship is found between intra-household inequality and average household well being, which implies important policy applications. All three papers use the China Health and Nutrition Survey data.