Citation
Wu, Xiaoyu (2008). Maternal Health and Family Size: Evidence from One-Child Policy in China. Manuscript, University of Maryland.Abstract
In this paper, I examine the impact of the quantity of children on maternal health by exploiting the exogenous changing in family size under the One-Child Policy in China. The data I use is China Health and Nutrition Survey in 1993, 1997, and 2000. The estimation results show that family size is significant in explaining the over-weight and high blood pressure. The mothers with more than one child have lower probability to be over-weight have hypertension. Although this means one-child mother is more likely to be unhealthy, it is still consistent with the framework of quantity-quality tradeoff since over-weight might be closely related to over consumption of food.