Rural road improvement and individual health in China

IF 2.9 3区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS

Journal of Asian Economics Pub Date : 2025-03-01 DOI:10.1016/j.asieco.2025.101908

Tao Bu , Daisheng Tang , Zheng Zhang , Chengkai Jiang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

It is crucial to investigate the effects of improving rural transportation infrastructure on the health of rural populations. This study establishes a multiple equilibrium model between transportation networks and rural health capital. Based on the data of rural road construction in China and the data of China Health and Nutrition Survey from 2000 to 2015, the OLS and FRD methods with year and individual fixed effects were used to analyze the impact of rural roads on the health status of rural labor force. The study found that rural road connectivity significantly improved laborers’ health, particularly for female, middle-aged and agricultural laborers. The key mechanism of this study is to promote public economic development and individual health investment, health literacy, and time allocation. There is a significant complementary effect between transportation investments and health investments, along with a substitution effect between work and leisure. Our theoretical and empirical findings highlight the importance of last-mile road construction in remote rural areas for improving rural health capital in developing countries.

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来源期刊

Journal of Asian Economics ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

4.70

自引率

9.40%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Asian Economics provides a forum for publication of increasingly growing research in Asian economic studies and a unique forum for continental Asian economic studies with focus on (i) special studies in adaptive innovation paradigms in Asian economic regimes, (ii) studies relative to unique dimensions of Asian economic development paradigm, as they are investigated by researchers, (iii) comparative studies of development paradigms in other developing continents, Latin America and Africa, (iv) the emerging new pattern of comparative advantages between Asian countries and the United States and North America.