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A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF INTERNAL MIGRATION, DIVORCE AND WELL-BEING IN CHINA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2017

Alok Bhargava  and
Xiayun Tan
Alok Bhargava*
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, Washington, DC, USA
Xiayun Tan
Affiliation:
The World Bank, Washington, DC, USA
*
1Corresponding author. Email: Bhargava@umd.edu
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Summary

The rapid economic growth in China has been accompanied by increases in internal migration as well as marital dissolution. Using longitudinal data from China Health and Nutrition Surveys covering over 19,000 individuals during 1989–2011, this study modelled the inter-relationships between internal migration, divorce and individual well-being, tackling conceptual and methodological aspects such as the joint determination of variables. First, random effects probit models showed that the migration periods of husbands and wives significantly increased their respective chances of divorce. Second, results from dynamic random effects models for self-reported health showed different effects of separation periods for husbands and wives; divorce did not significantly lower health status. Third, dynamic models for systolic and diastolic blood pressures showed significant effects of migration durations of husbands and wives; men had lower systolic blood pressure following divorce thereby indicating beneficial effects for unhappily married couples. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 50 , Issue 5 , September 2018 , pp. 706 - 722
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2017 

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