Disease Control And Human Capital

Under the background of China’s aging population,the positive effect of the traditional demographic dividend on economic development is disappearing,and the high-quality economic development requires more active investment in human capital,to realize the transition from demographic dividend to human capital dividend.Theoretical research on human capital from the perspective of life cycle shows that,investment in early life is of great significance.Of these,the economic impact of health interventions in early life is receiving increasing attention,especially the lasting impact of changes in health and nutrition before age five on human capital formation and labor market performance.This paper evaluates the effects of the control of major infectious diseases in early life on human capital from an interdisciplinary perspective of economics and public health etc.Specifically,after matching the regional carrier rate of Hepatitis B surface antigen reported in 1992’s Viral Hepatitis in China Seroepidemiological Survey in Chinese Population,the micro data of 2015’s 1% Population Census,and the data of 2016’s Chinese Family Panel Survey,this study estimates the effects and mechanisms of the immunization program of hepatitis B on individual human capital by using the method of cohort difference in differences under the framework of Intent-to-Treatment.Results show that:(1)After hepatitis B vaccine brought into children’s planned immunization program,the human capital of affected population has been improved significantly.The higher the carrier rate in preintervention,the greater the positive effect of the immunization program of hepatitis B.Averagely,the immunization program of hepatitis B has increased about 0.38 years of affected people’s average education,accounting for around 22 percent of the increase in education over the same period.(2)Women have a better immune response to hepatitis B vaccine,thus benefit more from the immunization program of hepatitis B.(3)The initial carrier rate in rural is higher than that in urban,and the initial education in rural is lower than that in urban,thus the education of rural population increases more.The mechanism analysis shows that,there are two main ways to this positive effect: Firstly,the immunization program of hepatitis B reduces the mortality rate(prolongs the life expectancy,and then increases the payback period of human capital investment),thus promotes household investment of human capital;Secondly,it improves health status,thus raises the efficiency of human capital investment.The conclusions of this study indicate that,the positive impact of the immunization program of hepatitis B is not only to interrupt the spread of major infectious diseases effectively,but also to promote human capital accumulation significantly.This paper enriches the research related to the effects of health intervention in early life,and also provides important empirical evidence for the implementation of Healthy China strategy.