Study On The Impact Of Income Gap On Health Level Of Rural Residents In China

Since the reform and opening up,China’s economy has maintained a high and steady growth,and the income level of rural residents has also been greatly improved.At the same time,the income gap within rural areas also shows a widening trend,which will lead to a series of economic and social problems,thus a brief impact on residents health.According to the Outline for a Healthy China,China’s development should improve the quality of people’s lives and protect their physical and mental health as an important development goal,which is also the basis for the great rejuvenation of the nation.In addition,in the context of the rural revitalization strategy proposed by the state,the development of rural economy cannot be separated from the health of the general public.Therefore,the study on the health of rural residents is not only related to the vital interests of every rural resident,but also plays a positive role in the whole social and economic development.This paper takes Chinese rural residents as the research object,uses the five annual balance panel data of China Family Tracking Survey(CFPS)from 2010 to 2018,and uses the Probit model to explore the impact of income gap in rural areas on residents’ health level,and discusses the relevant influence mechanism.The following conclusions are drawn:First,the income gap significantly suppressed the health level of rural residents,a result of consistent conclusion after using different explained variables,explanatory variables,and after overcoming potential endogenous problems using panel data twoway fixed effect model and instrumental variable method.Moreover,the inhibitory effect on the health level of rural residents is more caused by the income gap in a limited range,while the impact effect of a large range of income gap is relatively weak.Second,the income gap will restrain the health level of rural residents through two mechanisms: income inhibition and mobility constraint.Third,the social security policies provided by the government can play a significant role in regulating,and can form an effective guarantee mechanism to alleviate the impact of the income gap.With the deepening of government subsidies,the improvement effect on residents’ health is becoming more and more obvious.Fourthly,the group difference of income gap on the health level of different rural households was explored by dividing the age of the head,the rental income of the household and social capital.The results show that the inhibitory effect of income gap formation on health mainly acts on young rural residents,rural male residents,residents without rental income,and households with low social capital residents.Based on the above conclusions,in order to alleviate the income gap of rural residents on their health level,improve the policy suggestions are as follows: 1.Improve the redistribution system,narrow the income gap,improve the health level of rural residents;2.Improve the social security service system,alleviate the health damage to the vulnerable groups;3.Promote rural revitalization,increase employment opportunities,improve the income gap on rural residents;4.Constantly enrich the construction of financial infrastructure in rural areas,alleviate the liquidity constraints caused by the income gap.