Research Of Maternal Labor Supply's Impact On Children's Health In China

Children's health is usually regarded as an important indicator of national health and living standards.At the same time,childhood health has an impact on one's lifelong health,education,productivity,and income.It is related to the long-term human capital accumulation in a country.The Chinese economy has undergone significant changes since the twentieth century.The labor market has been evolving,and the proportion of women participating in employment has signific antly increased.This has played a positive role in increasing family income and reducing poverty.However,taking into account the dual status of women in the family-the earners and the main responsible for caring for children-the effect of changes in their labor practices on the welfare of the next generation and the accumulation of human capital is uncertain of.This article uses data from the Chinese Health and Nutrition Examination Survey(CHNS)from 1991 to 2011.It first describes the basic featu res,health status,family characteristics,and living environment characteristics of children in nine provinces in China.It also analyzes the situation of mothers' employment and The simple correlation between children's health.Preliminary findings: The health status of children who do not work as mothers in urban areas is the best.In rural areas,the health status of children who do not work as mothers is the next,followed by the health status of children who work as mothers in urban areas.Finally,t he health status of children working in rural areas is the worst.To further examine the impact of maternal labor supply on children's health,the article constructed a child health output model.Considering the endogenous relationship between mother's labor supply,child care and children's health,this paper introduces the fixed effect model and instrumental variable method.The selected instrumental variables are: gender average wage level according to year,region and industry.The female unemployment rate by year and region,and the local price level by year and region.The study found that increased maternal working hours and reduced time spent on child care have a significant negative impact on three indicators of child health.The negative impact of mother's labor time is mainly due to the negative effect of the decline in the quality of care caused by the increase in labor time.The negative effect of reduced childcare time on children's health should result from differences in the quality of care of alternatives and mothers' care quality.Family labor income has a significant positive impact on children's health,and this effect is more pronounced in the near future.Taking into account the children health can be affected by gender and different age stages,this article is divided into three segments according to children's dependence on mother,and make a regression analysis on different age stages and gender.The results showed that 0-2 and 2-5 years old children's health status have a significant negative effect with maternal employment,but there is no significant relationship between 5-12 years old children's health status and maternal employment behavior.From the gender perspective,compared with boys,the girls now stand in an adverse situation in terms of nutrition.It may show that girls was discriminated against by gender bias.The maternal labor supply have a much more negative impact on boys than girls.The increasing of mother's income has significant positive effect on boys and girls,and this positive externalities showed no obvious gender discrimination for children.In the end,the increasing in the labor supply of mothers helps to reduce the discrimination in the nutritional status of children,but wholly reduces the health leve l of children.Based on those conclusions,we believes that the government should promote the equal employment of men and women and increase women's employment opportunities in the intestine.It should also take into account that how to improve the human capital of next generation.It should also promote the responsibility and equal position of female and male in the family.In addition,institutions such as public kindergartens built by the state in our country are still unable to meet current needs,and there are several child care substitutes.The construction of public nurseries,kindergartens,and pre-school institutions should be strengthened to protect children's health.