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Inequality of Opportunity in Health Among Urban, Rural, and Migrant Children: Evidence from China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2022

Namrata Chindarkar Open the ORCID record for Namrata Chindarkar [Opens in a new window] ,
Maki Nakajima Open the ORCID record for Maki Nakajima [Opens in a new window]  and
Alfred M. Wu Open the ORCID record for Alfred M. Wu [Opens in a new window]
Namrata Chindarkar*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad 380015, India
Maki Nakajima
Affiliation:
Research Fellow, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Alfred M. Wu
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore
*
*Corresponding author. Email: namratac@iima.ac.in
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Abstract

Rural-urban migrants, though facing unique social and institutional constraints, remain a largely overlooked population in research on health inequality in China. This study applies the inequality of opportunity (IOp) framework to investigate health inequality among children in China. Instead of comparing only urban and rural children, we include rural-urban migrants. Drawing upon three waves of a nation-wide survey, we find that migrant children in China remain disadvantaged in terms of health when compared to urban and rural children. The decomposition of the determinants indicates that while the direct influence of hukou, China’s household registration system, on IOp in health is low and has decreased, particularly between 2007 and 2013, one’s province of residence still matters. Parental health contributes substantially to IOp in health, which likely is an indirect effect of hukou that creates barriers for migrant parents in regard to accessing healthcare. The policy implication of these findings is that although the direct influence of hukou has decreased, when coupled with the continued lack of local government support for the welfare of migrant workers, it perpetuates health inequalities.

Keywords

inequality of opportunityhealth inequalitymigrationChina
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , First View , pp. 1 - 20
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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