Panel Paper:
Food Insecurity and Children's Health Outcomes in Rural China: An Instrumental Variable Approach
Friday, April 7, 2017
:
4:00 PM
Founders Hall Room 475 (George Mason University Schar School of Policy)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Food insecurity is defined as “a situation that exists when people lack secure access to
sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active
and healthy life”. The relationship between food insecurity and child’s health is well established
in developed countries such as U.S., even though most of the research could only be interpreted
as correlation, instead of causality. This paper makes contribution to several dimensions. First
and for most, we take the endogeneity of food insecurity into account seriously, which comes
from either omitted variable bias or measurement error. Secondly, we try to understand such
relationship among poor families in rural China - Gansu province, where is known for its high rate
of poverty and harsh climate. Lastly, we explore a set of health outcome variables including height,
weight, hair zinc and lung capacity. In this paper, we use Gansu Survey of Children and Families (GSCF) data.
We apply Instrumental Variable to deal with the endogeneity and use Principle
Component Analysis to reduce the measurement error and provide more interpretive results.
We find that food security would significantly increase children's height-z-score and weight-z-score as well as
lung capacity after fixing the issue of endogeneity.
sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active
and healthy life”. The relationship between food insecurity and child’s health is well established
in developed countries such as U.S., even though most of the research could only be interpreted
as correlation, instead of causality. This paper makes contribution to several dimensions. First
and for most, we take the endogeneity of food insecurity into account seriously, which comes
from either omitted variable bias or measurement error. Secondly, we try to understand such
relationship among poor families in rural China - Gansu province, where is known for its high rate
of poverty and harsh climate. Lastly, we explore a set of health outcome variables including height,
weight, hair zinc and lung capacity. In this paper, we use Gansu Survey of Children and Families (GSCF) data.
We apply Instrumental Variable to deal with the endogeneity and use Principle
Component Analysis to reduce the measurement error and provide more interpretive results.
We find that food security would significantly increase children's height-z-score and weight-z-score as well as
lung capacity after fixing the issue of endogeneity.
