Migration,Intergenerational Transfer And The Nutrition And Health Of The Left-behind Elderly In Rural China

In the context of an aging society,how to achieve "a sense of security" has increasingly become an important issue in China.Compared with residents in urban areas,the situation of old-age security faced by rural residents is even more severe.At present,China's rural old-age security system is imperfect,and it covers a narrow area and is of low level.Thus,traditional family support is still the main way of supporting the elderly sin rural areas.In the process of rapid urbanization,the "incompleteness" of rural labor transfer makes it difficult for older parents to move to urban areas along with their adult children,thus exacerbating the problem of old-age social security in rural areas.In rural areas of China,many elderly people live together with their children to obtain direct material support,daily care and emotional support.However,with the massive outflow of rural young and middle-aged labor force,the spatial separation of two generations changes the intergenerational transfers:intergenerational time transfers and income transfers,which further affect the well-being of the left-behind elderly.In health economics,there exist related researches on the impact of adult children migration on the health of the left-behind elders,but empirical evidence remains vague.Most of the research focus on the quantity of intergenerational transfer,and few studies have explored the stability of intergenerational transfer on the health of the elderly.At the same time,as one of the important indicators measuring the welfare level of rural elderly,the elders'dietary and nutrition status has not yet attracted enough attention.Thus far,research that focus on offspring migration and the dietary structure and nutrient intake of rural elderly is relatively scarce.In the context of rapidly aging population and incomplete urbanization,how do adult children migration have effect on the nutritional and health status of the elderly in rural China?What is the mechanism behind adult children migration on the nutrition and health of their left-behind elders?Are there significant differences among the effects on nutrition and health of elders with different personal and family characteristics?How could the quantity and stability of migrant children's income transfers affect the health of rural elderly?What is the mechanism behind that?Comprehensive theoretical analysis and empirical tests are required to answers these questions.From the perspective of intergenerational transfer,this paper constructs a theoretical model based on the New Economics of Labor Migration,and analyzes the effects of adult children migration,intergenerational transfer on the nutrition and health of their left-behind elderly and also the mechanism behind it.China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey(CHARLS)database and the China Health and Nutrition Survey(CHNS)database are used to empirically test the effects of the adult children migration and intergenerational transfers on the nutrition and health of the left-behind elderly.Below are main conclusions in this study:The labor loss from migration adversely affects the health of the left-behind elderly in rural areas,while intergenerational income transfers can compensate for the negative effects.Generally,we find that left-behind elderly benefit from migrant children both physically and mentally,which means the positive effect of intergenerational income transfers can compensate for the negative effect from the loss of family labor in rural China.Liquidity constraint is an essential condition to make intergenerational income transfers functional so as to compensate for the adverse effect of labor losses on the health of the left-behind elders.Intergenerational income transfers can relax the liquidity constraints for rural households,and the physical health of the left-behind elderly with liquidity constraints are more likely to benefit from remitted sources from migrants than those without liquidity constraints.In other words,intergenerational income transfers only play an important role in improving the physical health of the left-behind elders when the elderly is facing liquidity constraints.The quantity and stability of income transfers from migrant children have significant positive effects on promoting the consumption behavior and improving the health of the left-behind elderly.At present,the stability of income transfers is more obvious in improving daily goods consumption such as food consumption,while elders in rural areas are relatively weakly affected by the stability of income transfers in terms of large-scale consumption such as medical care service and durable goods.The quantity and stability of income transfer from migrant children have significant effects in promoting left-behind elders' consumption behavior,which is an important channel in improving the health of the left-behind elders in rural areas.The migration of adult children significantly improves their left-behind parents'nutritional status.More specifically,we find a statistically significant and positive coefficient for most macroelements(dietary energy,proteins and carbohydrates)and also macronutrients(phosphorus,potassium,sodium and magnesium).By contrast,adult children migrants appear to have only a tiny effect on the rural elders' consumption of vitamins and trace elements,and only vitamin B1,vitamin B3,vitamin C and iron are positively correlated with adult children migration,while estimates of other nutrients are positive,they do not differ significantly from zero.Elders with migrant offspring consume more cereal products,meat,eggs and dairy products,which explains the improvement of nutrients intake of left-behind elderly in baseline results.However,we find no statistically significant growth on vegetables and fruit consumption among elderly with migrants.The improvement of nutrition outcomes of left-behind elderly is mainly due to changes in dietary structure.Based on research conclusions,this study proposes some policy suggestions.Our government should promote the urbanization pattern,and increase the employment opportunities for rural residents in local regions;construct an old-aged social security system,and promote the development of socialized support for the elderly;create a good living environment,and encourage elders lead a healthy lifestyle;focus more on the function of nutritional education,and carry out nutritional intervention policy and dietary guidance properly.This study provides a relatively complete analysis framework for related research on offspring migration and the well-being of the elderly.The conclusions of the study help to understand the current contradiction in research conclusions about the impact of adult children migration on the well-being of their elderly parents.On the other hand,it provides scientific basis for implementing health intervention policies among elders in rural areas,improving social security system,and promoting old-age care development in China.