Long‐Term Effects of Famine on Chronic Diseases: Evidence from China's Great Leap Forward Famine

Xue Feng Hu, Gordon G. Liu and Maoyong Fan

Health Economics, 2017, vol. 26, issue 7, 922-936

Abstract: We evaluate the long‐term effects of famine on chronic diseases using China's Great Leap Forward Famine as a natural experiment. Using a unique health survey, we explore the heterogeneity of famine intensity across regions and find strong evidence supporting both the adverse effect and the selection effect. The two offsetting effects co‐exist and their magnitudes vary in different age cohorts at the onset of famine. The selection effect is dominant among the prenatal/infant famine‐exposed cohort, while the adverse effect appears dominant among the childhood/puberty famine‐exposed cohort. The net famine effects are more salient in rural residents and non‐migrants subsamples. Gender differences are also found, and are sensitive to smoking and drinking behaviors. Our conclusion is robust to various specifications. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3371

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:26:y:2017:i:7:p:922-936

Access Statistics for this article

Health Economics is currently edited by Alan Maynard, John Hutton and Andrew Jones

More articles in Health Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().