 Does children's education matter for parents’ health and cognition? Evidence from ChinaJournal of Health Economics, 2019, vol. 66, issue C, 222-240 Abstract: Intergenerational transmission of human capital from parents to offspring is widely documented. However, whether there are upward spillovers from children to parents remains understudied. This paper uses data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study to estimate the causal impact of educational attainment of children on various health and cognition outcomes of older parents. Identification is achieved by using the exposure of children to the compulsory education law in China and its interaction with local schooling level before law enforcement as instruments for children's years of schooling. IV estimation results demonstrate that increasing years of education of children lead to better cognitive functions, higher survival expectations and improved lung function of Chinese older parents. Further evidence suggests that children's education might shape health of older parents by providing financial support, affecting the access to resources and influencing the labor supply and psychological well-being of parents. Keywords: Education; Health; Cognition; Children; Upward spillover; China (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:66:y:2019:i:c:p:222-240 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2019.06.004 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Health Economics is currently edited by J. P. Newhouse, A. J. Culyer, R. Frank, K. Claxton and T. McGuire More articles in Journal of Health Economics from Elsevier |
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