The School of Economics and The Nottingham Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy (GEP) China are pleased to invite you to the following research seminar given by Dr Jing You from Renmin University of China.
About the seminar
This paper assesses the causal impact of borrowing formal microcredit on child health for Chinese rural households by exploiting a panel dataset (2000 and 2004) in a poor northwest province. Endogenous borrowing is controlled for in a dynamic regression-discontinuity design creating a quasi-experimental environment for causal inferences. There is causal relationship running from formal microcredit to improved child health in the short-term, while past borrowing behaviour has no protracted impact on subsequent child health outcomes. Moreover, formal microcredit appears to be a complement to health insurance in improving child health through two mechanisms - it enhances affordability for out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure and helps buffer consumption against adverse health shocks and financial risk incurred by current health insurance arrangements. The government’s efforts in expanding health insurance for rural households would be more likely to achieve its optimal goals of improving child health outcomes if combined with sufficient access to formal microcredit.
Speaker biography
Dr Jing You is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at the Renmin University of China and an External Research Associate affiliated to Brooks World Poverty Institute at the University of Manchester. She earned her PhD from University of Manchester, MSc from University of Edinburgh and BEc from Capital University of Economics and Business, all in economics. Her current research interests include Development Economics and Applied Microeconometrics. Her research has been published in Oxford Bulletin of Economics & Statistics, China Economic Review and Applied Economics Letters.