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Does an upward intergenerational educational spillover effect exist? The effect of children’s education on Chinese parents’ health

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Abstract

Background

Research on the presence of an upward spillover effect of children’s education on parental health is rapidly developing. However, there are certain differences in the conclusions of relevant studies, and no consistent viewpoint has been reached.

Methods

Using the exogenous differences in education generated by the expansion of higher education enrollment that China implemented as a reform in 1999, we analyze this issue by studying the effect of children’s higher education on their parents’ health.

Results

The instrumental variable (IV) estimation results show that children who received higher education have a significant and positive effect on the physical health of their parents. Compared with the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation results, the coefficient of the effect of children receiving higher education is larger in the IV estimation.

Conclusions

Children’s education can generate a significant active effect on parental health, affecting parental physical health via its effect on parental health cognition and health behaviors. Based on heterogeneity analyses, the effect of a son’s education on parental health is more significant than the effect of a daughter’s education, and among rural children, higher education has a more significant effect on parental health.

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Fig. 1

Source of Data: National Bureau of Statistics of China

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China

    Ning Wei & Lülin Zhou

  2. School of Management, Xuzhou Medical University, 209 Tongshan Road, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

    Wenhao Huang

Authors
  1. Ning Wei
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  2. Lülin Zhou
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  3. Wenhao Huang
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Contributions

All authors were involved in planning of the study and interpretation of results. WN and HWH conducted the data analysis and wrote the first draft of the paper. ZLL critically reviewed the paper and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Wenhao Huang.

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Wei, N., Zhou, L. & Huang, W. Does an upward intergenerational educational spillover effect exist? The effect of children’s education on Chinese parents’ health. Int J Health Econ Manag. 22, 69–89 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10754-021-09308-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10754-021-09308-3

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