The impact of socio-economic status on health has been widely recognized, but the independent impact of social status alone on health remains inconclusive. We approach this challenge by exploiting a natural experiment in which subjects undergo a shift in their social status without considerable...

This paper uses the 2005 and 2006 China General Social Survey (CGSS) to study the relationship between social capital and health in China. Using four separate samples totalling over 18,000 respondents and some methodological innovations that are new to the social capital literature, we identify...

This paper is intended to assess the primary effects on cost, utilization and quality of care from payment reform of capitation and open enrollment in Changde city, Hunan Province of China. Open enrollment policy was introduced to deal with possible cream skimming associated with capitation....

This paper evaluates the effect of regulatory reform separating the operational control and regulatory oversight of public hospitals in China. Using city-level data and a difference-in-difference (DID) model, this paper estimates the changes in healthcare supply in response to the regulatory...

This paper tests whether body size affects employment status in the Chinese urban labor market. Based on Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance (URBMI) survey data, we find that body size has an inverted U-shaped effect on the probability of being employed when human capital and other factors...

Rural-to-urban migrant workers are an under-represented group in China's health insurance system, and the status of their health and healthcare draws increasing attention. This paper uses the 2007–2010 State Council URBMI Household Survey data to evaluate the efficacy of major health insurance...

Strong economic growth has led to remarkable urbanization in China. Using the China Health and Nutrition Survey, this study provides the first empirical evidence documenting the impact of urbanization on rural health care and insurance. The primary finding is that urbanization leads to a...

As the latest government effort to reform China's health care system, Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance (URBMI) was piloted in seventy-nine cities during the summer of 2007, following State Council Policy Document 2007 No. 20's guidelines. This study presents the first economic analysis of...

The health care delivery system in China, which is dominated by state hospitals, is being increasingly challenged by public concerns: it is too expensive and too inaccessible, a complaint commonly phrased as "kai bin nan, kan bin gui" in Chinese. As the penetration of for-profit hospitals has...

This study evaluates changes in access to health care in response to the pilot experiment of urban health insurance reform in China. The pilot reform began in Zhenjiang and Jiujiang cities in 1994, followed by an expansion to 57 other cities in 1996, and finally to a nationwide campaign in the...