The Health Inequality of Children in China: A Regression-Based Decomposition Analysis

The health inequality of children is particularly important due to its far-reaching impact. Many empirical studies have shown that the lack of health-related human capital accumulation during childhood has many adverse effects. However, the health inequality of children seems to be less discussed in China. In this paper, we investigate the status and contributing factors of health inequality of children in China. The dataset used in this paper is called Rural-Urban Migration in China 2008 (RUMiC 2008), which was initiated by the Australian National University alongside a few other institutions. Using the data, firstly, we calculate the concentration index for stunting and underweight to track their status among children. Then, we decompose the concentration index using a regression equation method. The results show that household per capita income is the most important contributional factor to the concentration index of stunting for rural children. The next most important factor is the education of the household head. As expected, household per capita income is not an important contributional factor toward the concentration index of stunting in the urban sample. Its most important contributional factor is the education of the household head. For both rural and urban children, household per capita income is the most important contributional factor for the concentration index of underweight. Well-designed policies to increase the household per capita income and the education of the household heads may help to reduce the health inequality of their children.