The effect of one-child family on child nutrition in China

Abstract

This paper examines the determinants of child nutritional status in China, focusing specially on the only-child effect. Data are drawn from China Health and Nutrition Survey, 2000. The empirical relationship between nutritional status and only-child, on the one hand, and other effect factors like mother's height, maternal education, and location (urban vs. rural) is investigated. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and Match method are used respectively. In the preferred model — Match model where a two-step match was explored — we find that being an only-child can increase the height-for-age z-scores by 0.4 ~ 0.5.