Long-term impacts of early adversity on subjective well-being: Evidence from the Chinese great famine

Qianping Ren, Liyan Wang and Maoliang Ye

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2025, vol. 230, issue C

Abstract: Employing a difference-in-differences method across birth cohorts and regions with nationally representative data, this study examines the impact of the 1959–1961 Chinese Great Famine on survivors’ subjective well-being (SWB) fifty years later. Early-life exposure significantly reduces emotional and eudaimonic SWB, especially among females; evaluative SWB remains unaffected. Mechanism analysis highlights health status and social integration as primary channels, with socioeconomic status playing a limited role. This study is the first to systematically analyze the famine's SWB effects, revealing variability across well-being dimensions. Our findings underscore early-life circumstances’ pivotal role in SWB and the enduring consequences of adversity and public disasters.

Keywords: Famine; Public disasters; Early-life circumstance; Subjective well-being; Difference-in-differences; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 J10 N35 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:230:y:2025:i:c:s0167268125000253

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2025.106905

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