Abstract
Using pooled data from the 1991–2011 waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), this paper proposes an empirical study on inequality of opportunity in child nutritional outcomes. Children's nutritional outcomes were measured using anthropometric indicators including underweight, stunting, wasting, overweight and obesity. We examine the role played by circumstances beyond the control of individuals—for instance, children's age, gender, hukou status, household size, birth order, family background, region and sanitation—in generating nutritional outcomes inequality among Chinese children aged 0–15. We find that the largest relative share of inequality of opportunity (IOP) in child nutritional outcomes in China is 11.49% (stunting) for the entire sample. Shapley-value decompositions reveal that region and family background are the dominant contributors to inequality of opportunity for most of the nutritional outcomes. IOP turns out to be largest for the 6–10 age cohort. Heterogeneity analysis further shows that disadvantaged groups, for instance, children living in the rural area of western China, face higher unequal opportunities for undernutrition. Conversely, children from urban area of the east show a higher inequality of opportunity in overnutrition. In addition, our counterfactual analysis indicates that if those rural children had migrated to cities, the IOP for the full sample would increase by more than 19%, implying greater attention should be paid to equalizing opportunity amid massive migration and urbanization in China in the years to come.
《Global Food Security》2022年4月线上发表
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2022.100635
