Parental Job Loss and Children’S Health: Ten Years after the Massive Layoff of the Soes’ Workers in China

49 Pages Posted: 24 Jul 2011 Last revised: 16 Apr 2023

See all articles by Hong Liu

Hong Liu

Washington University in St. Louis - Olin Business School; Fudan University - China Institute of Economics and Finance

Hong Liu

Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE)

Zhong Zhao

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); Renmin University of China

Abstract

Beginning in the mid 1990s, China sped up its urban labor market reform and drastically restructured its state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which resulted in massive layoff of the SOEs' workers and a high unemployment rate. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the parents’ job loss on the health of their children, using six waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey covering the period from 1991 to 2006. We find that paternal job loss has a significant negative effect on children's health, whilst maternal job loss has no significant effect. The rationale behind the findings is that the income loss resulting from maternal job loss is much smaller; at the same time, the unemployed mothers are likely to increase the time they devote to care of their children, and this may alleviate the negative effect resulting from maternal job loss. Our findings are robust to various specifications.

Keywords: China, children’s health, Grossman’s model, job loss

JEL Classification: I12, J63, N35, J13

Suggested Citation

Liu, Hong and Liu, Hong and Zhao, Zhong, Parental Job Loss and Children’S Health: Ten Years after the Massive Layoff of the Soes’ Workers in China. IZA Discussion Paper No. 5846, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1893926 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1893926

Hong Liu (Contact Author)

Washington University in St. Louis - Olin Business School ( email )

One Brookings Drive
Campus Box 1133
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
United States
314-935-5883 (Phone)

Fudan University - China Institute of Economics and Finance ( email )

China

Hong Liu

Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE)

Beijing, Beijing
China

Zhong Zhao

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Renmin University of China ( email )

Room B906
Xianjin Building
Beijing, Beijing 100872
China

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