Research
R&R/Under Review/Working Papers
*********Aging*********
Grandfathers and Grandsons: Social Security Expansion and Child Health in China (with Jinyang Yang) EDCC
NBER Aging and Social Security Meetings, Shanghai.
Genetic Predisposition, Social Determinants of Health Exposure, and Long-Term Dementia Risk in The General Population (with José M. Aravena and Becca Levy)
Place of Birth and Cognition among Older Americans: Findings from the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (with Zhuoer Lin) JGSS
Innovation in Aging, Volume 7, Issue Supplement_1, December 2023, Pages 185–186, https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igad104.0612
Sex Differences in Primary and Secondary Stroke Prevention: Findings from the China Kadoorie Biobank of 0.5 Million Adults. (with Miaomiao Zhao, Yuming Guo, Meng Wang, Yeyang Zhu, Qunhong Wu, Yanhua Hao, Mingli Jiao, and Liyuan Han) JAHA: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Absence of Care Among Community-Living Older Persons with Dementia and Functional Limitations: A Cross-National Analysis of Population Survey from 22 Countries (with Z Lin, YT Qian, X Hou, S Chen, T Gill) Nature Aging
Innovation in Aging, Volume 7, Issue Supplement_1, December 2023, Pages 51–52, https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igad104.0168
Delineating multi-dimensional healthy aging trajectories in the United Kingdom, the United States, and China (with Liming Zhang; Jiening Yu; Zichang Su; Xueqing Jia; Yingying Hu; Jingyun Zhang; Wei Yang Emiel O. Hoogendijk; Zuyun Liu)
The Causal Effect of Education on Cognitive Impairment (with Z. Lin) AEA
Mental Health, Physical Health and Cognitive Health Over the Life Course: A Machine Learning Approach (with ST Huo, D. Feng, T. Gill et al.)
Health Care Utilization and Costs for Dementia Patients in China: Evidence from A National Inpatient Database (with F. Ba, Z. Lin, H. Allore)
In-hospital Mortality among Dementia Patients in China: Evidence from Hospital Administrative Data (with Zhuoer Lin, Fang Ba, Heather Allore)
Polysocial factors, dementia and cognitive decline among community-dwelling older adults in the USA: the health and retirement study (with Yongjing Ping, Chenkai Wu et al.) Innovation in Aging, Volume 6, Issue Supplement_1, November 2022, Page 1, https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igac059.001
Retirement and Health Care across Spectrum of Diseases (with T. Wang, R. Sun, J. Sindelar)
Zhuoer Lin, Mark Schlesinger, Xi Chen, COGNITIVE MISPERCEPTION, DISABILITY, AND MORTALITY AMONG OLDER ADULTS IN 25 COUNTRIES, Innovation in Aging, Volume 7, Issue Supplement_1, December 2023, Page 210, https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igad104.0694
Paid Family Leave and Caregiving Patterns in American Older Adults with Long-Term Care Needs (with YT Qian)
Multilevel Factors Associated with Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Timely Diagnosis of Dementia in US Older Adults (with YT Qian and F Li)
Cognitive Friendly Community and Health Care (with Jingyi Ai and Jin Feng)
Temporal trends in population attributable fractions of modifiable risk factors for dementia: a time-series study of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (2004–2019) (with Shanquan Chen et al.)
Ozone and Cognitive Aging: Evidence from the U.S. (with P Yu, Y Qiu)
Cognitive Misperception and ACP Trajectories (with YF Lou, Z Lin, H, Allore)
Health and long-term care for people with cognitive impairment and dementia in the US: A latent transition analysis (with B Hu et al.) JAMA Health Forum
Prevalence, Progress, and Subgroup Disparities in Underdiagnoses of those with Probable Dementia: a Longitudinal study in 18 European Countries (with Pengyun Wang, Shanquan Chen et al.).
The Prevalence of Negative Clinical Trial Results (with Xuanyu Shi, Wenjing Zhao, Jian Du) Nature Scientific Data
*********Environment & Climate Change*********
Blowin’ in the Wind of an Invisible Killer: Long-term Exposure to Ozone and Respiratory Mortality in the United States (with Ziheng Liu, Qinan Lu)
The effects of extreme temperatures on neurological mortality: Evidence from China (with Yun Qiu and Pei Yu)
Extreme temperatures and cognitive function in a changing climate: Evidence based on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) (with Jing Huang, Chenling Zhang, Guoxing Li, Shanquan Chen, Hai Fang, Gordon G Liu)
*Environmental Stressors and Suicide (with Macro Sun, Xin Zhang) Reject & Resubmit at Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
Air Pollution and Entrepreneurship (with Guo, Liwen & Cheng, Zhiming & Tani, Massimiliano & Cook, Sarah & Zhao, Jiaqi).
GLO Discussion Paper Series 1196, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
“I Don’t Like Mondays”. (with Mark Schlesinger, Xiaobo Zhang, Xin Zhang, Grace Yi)
“Environment and Fetal Development”. (with Hao Deng and Yawei Zhang)
Featured by The Economist (Dec, 2015), Council on Foreign Relations, Yale Public Health Magazine
Gone with the Blue Sky: How Does Air Quality Affect Online Shopping? (with Yuan Liu and Yao Wang)
Featured by Council on Foreign Relations
*********Healthcare*********
Physician–Patient Gender Match and Healthcare Quality: An Experiment in China (with Yafei Si, Gang Chen, Min Su, Zhongliang Zhou, Winnie Yip)
Spatial crowding-out effect of public hospitals on primary health-care institutions in China (with C Shen and ZL Zhou)
Waiting Time and Quality of Patient Care: Consequences of a Medical Expense Transaction Reform in China (iHEA Congress, 2017)
Quality and Accountability of ChatGPT in LMIC Healthcare: A Simulated Patient Study (with Yafei Si, Yuyi Yang, Xi Wang, Jiaqi Zu, Xiaojing Fan, Ruopeng An, Sen Gong) JMIR
*********Health Behavior*********
“Spatial Identification of Stigma Behavior through Social Networks: Peer Effects on Paid Blood Donation”.
Featured by AAEA, PAA Affairs (Fall 2013), Zheng Jian
IZA DP 11413
“Social Network for All? Understanding Private Returns to Household Ceremony Spending in Rural China”.
Featured by PAA Affairs (Fall 2013) , The Economist (November 2013)
“Peer Effects, Risk-Pooling and Status Seeking: What Explains Gift Spending Escalation in Rural China?”. (with Kanbur R, Zhang X.)
Featured by The Economist (June 2012) , The SSI, ASPH, AAEA, PAA Affairs (Fall 2013), PAA Affairs (Fall 2014), China Daily
IFPRI Discussion Paper #01151; CEPR Discussion Paper #8777; Dyson School Working Paper 2012-04; NBER Cultural and Institution Paper
“Identification and Estimation of a Structural Pairwise Regression Model with Individual Heterogeneity”. American Economic Association Meetings 2013. (with Shi ZT.)
“Positional Spending and Its Crowd-out of Necessities in Rural China”. (with Wang XW, Zhang X, Fan SG, Li X)
*********Child Development*********
"Investing in the Womb: Identifying Discrimination through the Lens of Prenatal Ultrasound Scans" (with Neha Anand) The Ronald Meltzer & Cornelia Awdziewicz Award
Featured by Yale Economics Dept.
“Costly Posturing: Social Status, Squeeze Effect and Early Childhood Development”. (with Zhang X.) 2nd R&R at Journal of Development Economics.
Featured by IFPRI News , Yale News , YSPH News, Association for Social Economics, AAEA, Yale Public Health, PAA Affairs (Fall 2013), The Economist (November 2013) , valuewalk, China Daily, IZA Newsroom, Yale Public Health Magazine
IZA Discussion Paper; ASSA Meeting Presentation Slides; UNU-WIDER Working Paper 2012-070; IFPRI Discussion Paper #01206; NBER China Group Paper; FAO Book
“Birth Spacing and Child Health in Indonesia”. (with Le Wang)
“Human Capital Production Function in Utero”. (with Katie Choi)
Featured by Yale Public Health Magazine
Parental Investment Responses to Fetal Air Pollution Exposure and Its Long-Term Impact on Cognitive Performance (with Xin Zhang, Yixuan Wang, Xingyi Hu)
Neonatal Mortality and Hospital Delivery of 2930 Counties in China, 2008-2020: An Observational Longitudinal Study (with Hai Fang, Haijun Zhang, Arturo Vargas Bustamante, Shusheng Luo, Yanqiu Gao, Jianmeng Liu) BMJ
Journal Articles
[119] Temporal trends and disparities of population attributable fractions of modifiable risk factors for dementia in China: a time-series study of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2001–2018) (with Shanquan Chen et al.) The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific
[118] Association between Children’s Geographic Proximity, Spousal Availability and Modifiable Risk Factors for Dementia among Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment (with Z Lin, X Yin, B Levy) The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
[117] A machine learning algorithm based on circulating metabolic biomarkers offers improved predictions of neurological diseases (with Liyuan Han et al.) Clinica Chimica Acta
[116] Confronting health disparities: Lessons from the USA. (with Liming Zhang, Xueqing Jia, Zhenyu Sun, Zuyun Liu) Aging Medicine
[115] Changes in Home Environment, Lifestyles, and Mental Health among Preschoolers Who Experienced Lockdown during the First Wave of COVID-19 in Shanghai (with Yunting Zhang; Jin Zhao; Zhangsheng Yu; Saishuang Wu; Yue Zhang; Guanghai Wang; Jun Zhang; Fan Jiang; Donglan Zhang) Children and Youth Services Review
[114] Assessing Early-Life Contributions to Racial Disparities in Cognition for Older Americans: The Importance of Educational Quality and Experience (with J. Ye, Z. Lin, H. Allore, T. Gill) forthcoming JAMA Internal Medicine.
Innovation in Aging, Volume 7, Issue Supplement_1, December 2023, Page 304, https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igad104.1011
[113] Association Between Healthcare Quality and Dementia Risk in Older Persons (with José M. Aravena, Becca R. Levy) Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
[112] Applying Machine Learning Approach to Explore Childhood Circumstances and Self-Assessed Health in Old Age – China and the US, 2020-2021 (with ST Huo, D. Feng, T. Gill et al.) China CDC Weekly.
[111] Occupational Differences in the Effects of Retirement on Hospitalizations for Mental Illness: Evidence from Administrative Data (with T. Wang, R. Sun, J. Sindelar) Economics & Human Biology
[110] Meta-Analysis: Early Life Exposure to the Chinese Famine (1959-1961) and the Health of Older Adults - China, 2008-2018 (with Chi Shen) China CDC Weekly.
[109] Accelerated Aging Mediates the Associations of Unhealthy Lifestyles with Cardiovascular Disease, Cancer, and Mortality: Two Large Prospective Cohort Studies (with Xueqin Li, Xingqi Cao, Jingyun Zhang, Jinjing Fu, Mayila Mohedaner, Zhuogadanzeng, Xiaoyi Sun, Gan Yang, Zhenqing Yang, Chia-Ling Kuo, Alan A Cohen, Zuyun Liu) Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
[108] Association of childhood adversity with frailty and the mediating role of unhealthy lifestyle: A lifespan analysis ( with Gan Yang; Xingqi Cao; Jie Yu; Xueqin Li; Liming Zhang; Jingyun Zhang; Chao Ma; Ning Zhang; Qingyun Lu; Chenkai Wu; Emiel O. Hoogendijk; Thomas M. Gill; Zuyun Liu) American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
[107] Temperature and Low-stakes Cognitive Performance (with X. Zhang and XB. Zhang) accepted at Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
[106] Do Primary Healthcare Facilities in More Remote Areas Provide More Medical Services? Spatial Evidence from Rural Western China (with C Shen and ZL Zhou) Health & Social Care in the Community
[105] Does Extreme Temperature Exposure Take a Toll on Mental Health? Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (with Y. Chen, R Sun, X. Qin) in press, Environment and Development Economics
[104] Trends in gender and racial/ethnic disparities in physical disability and social support among US older adults with cognitive impairment living alone, 2000–2018 (with Shanquan Chen; Huanyu Zhang; Benjamin Underwood; Dan Wang; Rudolf Cardinal) Innovation in Aging. in press
[103] The Morbidity Costs of Air Pollution through the Lens of Health Spending in China (with Xin Zhang, Xun Zhang, Yuehua Liu, Xintong Zhao) Journal of Population Economics
[102] Self-Perceived Memory Is Negatively Associated with Chronic Disease Awareness: Evidence from Blood Biomarker Data (with Z. Lin, MQ Fu)
Social Science & Medicine - Population Health
[101] The whole-of-society approach of mass COVID-19 vaccination in China: a qualitative study (with Wang, Q., Qu, Z., Tu, S., Z Hou) Health Research Policy and Systems 20, 142 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-022-00947-7
[100] Association of Subjective and Objective Cognition with Disease Awareness: Evidence from Blood Biomarkers Data. (with Z. Lin, M.Q. Fu)
Innovation in Aging, Volume 6, Issue Supplement_1, November 2022, Pages 606–607.
[99] The Dynamic Impacts of Dementia on Preventive Care Utilization. (with Z. Lin) Alzheimer's & Dementia: Journal of the Alzheimer's Association. 18: e062290.
Other versions: Innovation in Aging, Volume 6, Issue Supplement_1, November 2022, Pages 411–412, https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igac059.1616
[98] Geographic Variation in Inpatient Care Utilization, Outcomes and Costs for Dementia Patients Aged 65 Years or Older – China, 2017-2019 (with Zhuoer Lin, Fang Ba, Gordon G Liu, Heather Allore) China CDC Weekly, 2022, 4(45): 997-1001. doi: 10.46234/ccdcw2022.202
[97] Projecting Long-Term Care Costs for Home and Community-based Services in China from 2005 to 2050 (with Haiyu Jin, Yanfang Su, Chenkai Wu et al.) Journal of the American Medical Directors Association
[96] Prevalence and temporal trend of polypharmacy among people with dementia in 25 Israel-European Union countries: a multi-country population-based study (with Shanquan Chen and Huanyu Zhang) China CDC Weekly, 2022, 4(45): 1007-1012. doi: 10.46234/ccdcw2022.204
[95] The Path to Healthy Ageing in China: A PKU-Lancet Commission Report. (30 commissioners globally, Commission chair: Yaohui Zhao) The LANCET
Background paper: Early Life Circumstances and the Health of Older Adults: A Research Note. IZA DP No. 15511
[94] Early-Life Circumstances and Cross-Country Disparities in Cognition Among Older Populations — China, the US, and the EU, 2008–2018 (with Binjian Yan and Thomas Gill) China CDC Weekly, 2022, 4(45): 1013-1018. doi: 10.46234/ccdcw2022.205
[93] Long-term Services and Supports and Health Management among Older Chinese Adults in Different Stages of Cognitive Impairment (with Z. Lin)
forthcoming at The Journal of the Economics of Ageing
[92] Promote COVID-19 Vaccination for Older Adults in China (with Shujie Zang, Xu Zhang, Zhiqiang Qu, Zhiyuan Hou). China CDC Weekly, 2022, 4(37): 832-834. doi: 10.46234/ccdcw2022.173
[91] Association of Unhealthy Lifestyle and Childhood Adversity With Acceleration of Aging Among UK Biobank Participants (with Gan Yang, Xingqi Cao, Xueqin Li, Jingyun Zhang, Chao Ma, Ning Zhang, Qingyun Lu, Eileen M. Crimmins, Thomas M. Gill, Zuyun Liu) JAMA Network Open
[90] Hospital Admission Risks and Ambient Fine Particulate Matter Exposure in Beijing, China (with Ziting Wu et al.) Atmospheric Environment
[89] Life course circumstances accelerate aging in Chinese middle-aged and older adults (with Xingqi Cao, Chao Ma, Zhoutao Zheng, Liu He, Meng Hao, Eileen M. Crimmins, Thomas M. Gill, Morgan E. Levine, Zuyun Liu) eClinicalMedicine (part of THE LANCET Discovery Science)
[88] Life course traumas and cardiovascular disease: The mediating role of accelerated aging (with Xingqi Cao, Jingyun Zhang, Chao Ma, Xueqin Li, Chia-Ling Kuo, Morgan E. Levine, Guoqing Hu, Heather Allore, Xifeng Wu, Zuyun Liu) Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
[87] Key Links in Network Interactions: Assessing Route-specific Travel Restrictions in China during the Covid-19 Pandemic (with Yun Qiu, Wei Shi, Pei Yu) China Economic Review
[**] Optimal Travel Restrictions in Epidemics, (with Yun Qiu, Wei Shi, Pei Yu) IZA DP No. 15290.
Spatial Data Lab, 2020, "Webinars on Modeling COVID-19 Pandemic：Resources, Methodology and Applications", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/NXF45W, Harvard Dataverse, V4
[86] The Effect of Dual Sensory Impairment and Multimorbidity Patterns on Functional Impairment: A Longitudinal Cohort of Middle-aged and Older Adults in China. (with Qiong Wang, Shimin Zhang, Yi Wang, Dan Zhao, and Chengchao Zhou) Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
[85] Difficulty and help with activities of daily living among older adults living alone during the COVID-19 pandemic: a multi-country population-based study. (with Shanquan Chen; Linda Jones; Shan Jiang; Huajie Jin; Dong Dong; Dan Wang; Yun Zhang; Li Xiang; Anna Zhu; Rudolf N.) BMC Geriatrics.
[84] American older adults in COVID-19 Times: Vulnerability types, aging attitudes and emotional responses (with M.Fu, J. Guo, Q. Zhang) Frontiers in Public Health
[83] Role of Professionalism in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Does a Public Health or Medical Background Help? (with WZ Lai, X Li, QQ Wan) in press, China Economic Review.
[82] “Something in the Pipe: Flint Water Crisis and Health at Birth”. (with Wang, R. and X. Li.) Journal of Population Economics.
IZA Discussion Paper No. 12115.
[81] The role of institutional trust in preventive and treatment-seeking behaviors during the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak among residents in Hubei, China. (with Li Ping Wong, Qunhong Wu, Yanhua Hao, Xi Chen, Zhuo Chen, Haridah Alias, Mingwang Shen, Jingcen Hu, Shiwei Duan, Jinjie Zhang, Liyuan Han) forthcoming in International Health. 2021; ihab023, https://doi.org/10.1093/inthealth/ihab023
[80] Adverse Childhood Circumstances and Cognitive Function in Middle-aged and Older Chinese Adults: Lower Level or Faster Decline? (with Z. Lin) Social Science & Medicine - Population Health. Volume 14, June 2021, 100767.
[79] "Prevalence of Memory-Related Diagnoses among U.S. Older Adults with Early Symptoms of Cognitive Impairment" (with Qian Y, Tang D, Kelley A, Li J.) Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences
[78] Pandemic Economics and the Transformation of Health Policy (with Annie Fan) Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies. Taylor & Francis. DOI:10.1080/14765284.2021.1940453
[77] How and to What Extent Can Pensions Facilitate Increased Use of Health Services by Older People: Evidence From Social Pension Expansion in Rural China (with Shanquan Chen et al. 2020) BMC Health Services Research
[76] “Comparison of health care utilization among patients affiliated and not affiliated with healthcare professionals in China” (with Yafei Si; Zhongliang Zhou et al.) BMC Health Services Research
[75] “Early Life Environments and Health Inequality among the Elderly: Comparative Evidence from China and the U.S.” (with Thomas Gill and Binjian Yan), Social Indicators Research.
[74] Measuring spatial accessibility and within-province disparities in accessibility to county hospitals in Shaanxi Province of Western China based on web mapping navigation data. (with Shen, C., Zhou, Z., Lai, S. et al.) International Journal for Equity in Health 19, 99 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-020-01217-0.
[73] Impacts of Social and Economic Factors on the Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China (with Yun Qiu, Wei Shi), forthcoming, Journal of Population Economics
Date used can be downloaded from https://www.dropbox.com/s/tufef2sciu28ka0/2019-nCoV.dta?dl=0
[72] Barriers of effective health insurance coverage for rural-to-urban migrant workers in China: A systematic review and policy gap analysis (Chen, Chen, Feng, et al. 2020) BMC Public Health
[71] Attributable risk and economic cost of hospital admissions for mental disorders due to PM2.5 in Beijing (with ZT Wu et al.) Science of the Total Environment
[70] "The Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Temperature Extremes on Birth Outcomes: The Case of China" (with Chih Ming Tan, XiaoboZhang, Xin Zhang) Journal of Population Economics
Featured by AEA Version, Yale Public Health Magazine, YSPH News, YSPH News
[69] Zhuoer Lin, Chen X, 2020. Early Life Circumstances and Cognitive Aging: Longitudinal Evidence From China Health and Retirement Study, Innovation in Aging, Volume 4, Issue Supplement_1, Page 62.
[68] "Social Security Expansion and Neighborhood Cohesion: Evidence from Community-Living Older Adults in China". (with Bradley, E., and G. Tang.) Journal of the Economics of Aging
[67] "The Impact of Prenatal Exposure to Sunshine on Birth Outcomes." (with Xin Zhang, Yixuan Wang, Xun Zhang) Science of the Total Environment
[66] Zhuoer Lin, Chen X, 2020. Children’s Education and Parents’ Cognitive Aging: Evidence From the Compulsory Schooling Law in China, Innovationy in Aging, Volume 4, Issue Supplement_1, Page 30.
[65] "Leaving Money on the Table? Pension Enrollment Decisions in China" (with Jody Sindelar and Lipeng Hu) Journal of the Economics of Aging
Featured by GSA,
[64] China CDC Weekly: Bridging the Global and Chinese Public Health Communities. invited commentary. China CDC Weekly. 2019. 1(3): 43-44.
[63] Depression in the house: the effects of household air pollution from solid fuel use among the middle-aged and older population in China (with Yan LIU and Zhijun YAN). Science of the Total Environment
[62] Spatial Lifecourse Epidemiology Reporting Standards (ISLE-ReSt) Statement. Health & Place
[61] Understanding health and social challenges for ageing and long-term care in China. (with Wei Yang, Bei Wu, Siying Tan, Bingqin Li, Vivian Lou, Zhuo Chen, James Fletcher, Ludovici Carrino, Hu Bo, Anwen Zhang, Min Hu, Yixiao Wang). Research on Aging.
[60] Linking Early Life Risk Factors to Frailty in Old Age: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (with Yaxi Li, Qian-Li Xue, Michelle C. Odden, Chenkai Wu) Age and Ageing
[59] China in Transition: Health, Wealth, and Globalization. (with Gordon G. Liu) in press. LANCET Public Health.
[58] Climate change and quality of health care: evidence from extreme heat. (with Y.Si, ZZ Liang, M. Su) The Lancet, Volume 394, Supplement 1, October 2019, Page S94.
[57] Revisiting gender gap in quality of health care in urban China: a standardised patient audit study. (with Z.L. Zhou, Y.Si, M. Su) The Lancet, Volume 394, Supplement 1, October 2019, Page S25.
[56] Associations of Genetics and Life Course Circumstances with A Novel Aging Measure that Captures Mortality Risk. (with Zuyun Liu, Thomas M Gill, Chao Ma, Eileen Crimmins, Morgan E Levine) Innovation in Aging, Volume 3, Issue Supplement_1, November 2019, Pages S322–S323, https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igz038.1177.
[55] Social pension expansions and health-care utilisation in China: cross-sectional evidence from the New Rural Pension Scheme. (with H. Hu, Y.Si) The Lancet, Volume 394, Supplement 1, October 2019, Page S91.
[54] Effect of family income on cognition in older adults in China: an instrumental-variables decomposition analysis (with Han Hu, Yafei Si) The Lancet, Volume 394, Supplement 1, October 2019, Page S81.
[53] Top 10 research priorities in Spatial Lifecourse Epidemiology. (with Peng Jia, Jeroen Lakerveld, Jianguo Wu, Alfred Stein, Elizabeth Root, Clive E. Sabel, Roel Vermeulen, Justin V. Remais, Ross C. Brownson, Sherif Amer, Qian Xiao, Limin Wang, Monique Verschuren, Tong Wu, Youfa Wang, Peter James) Environmental Health Perspectives
[52] Disentangling the contribution of childhood and adulthood circumstances and genetics to phenotypic aging: prospective cohort study (with Zuyun Liu, Thomas M. Gill, Chao Ma, Eileen M. Crimmins, Morgan E. Levine) PLoS Medicine
[51] Decomposing Inequality in Catastrophic Health Expenditure for Self-reported Hypertension Household in Urban Shaanxi, China from 2008 to 2013: Two Waves’ Cross-Sectional Study. (with Y. Si, ZL Zhou, X. Wang, X. Lan, D. Wang, SQ Gong, X. Xiao, C. Shen, YL Ren, DT Zhao, ZH Hong, Y Bian) BMJ Open.
[50] Does Money Relieve Depression? Evidence from Social Pension Expansions in China”. (with Wang TY, Busch S.) In press. Social Science & Medicine.
NBER Summer Institute 2014.
Featured by GSA, NIH, IZA Press
[49] Assessing the effects of the percentage of chronic disease in households on health payment-induced poverty in Shaanxi Province, China. (with Xin Lan, Zhongliang Zhou, Yafei Si, Chi Shen, Xiaojing Fan, Gang Chen, Dantong Zhao) BMC Health Services Research. 2018, 18:871.
[48] Chen, X. 2018. Smog, Cognition and Real-World Decision Making. In press, International Journal of Health Policy and Management.
[47] Chen, X. 2018. Promoting Population Health: Some U.S. Lessons for China at the Crossroads. pp 11-13, Nov-Dec 2018 Issue of the Journal Insight. American Chamber of Commerce.
[46] Does Daughter Deficit Promote Paternal Substance Use? Evidence from China. forthcoming in Journal of Hospital Management and Health Policy.
Featured by Stanford AHPP News & Events, Stanford IPS, Stanford FSI Audio, USC
[45] Smog in Aging Brains: Air Pollution and Cognitive Decline (with Xiaobo Zhang and Xin Zhang) In press, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.
Featured by GSA, CCER-NBER News Brief, Council on Foreign Relations, CGTN, Yale Daily News, The Times, Daily Mail, Earth, GLO, GLO2, The News on Sunday, Scroll India, Financial Times, Financial Times (Chinese Edition), Harvard Health Policy Review
News reports in global media since August 22, 2018 (see an incomplete list)
[**] Smog in Our Brains: Gender Differences in the Impact of Exposure to Air Pollution on Cognitive Performance (with Xiaobo Zhang and Xin Zhang) IZA DP No. 10628.
Featured by GSA, CCER-NBER News Brief, Council on Foreign Relations, CGTN, Yale Daily News, The Times, Daily Mail, Earth, GLO, GLO2, The News on Sunday, Scroll India, Financial Times, Financial Times (Chinese Edition), Harvard Health Policy Review
[44] "Socio-Economic Inequalities in Tobacco Consumption of the Older Adults in China: A Decomposition Method" (with Si, Y.; Zhou, Z.; Su, M.; Wang, X.; Li, D.; Wang, D.; He, S.; Hong, Z.) International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 15(7), 1466.
[43] "Air pollution associated with non-suicidal self-injury in Chinese adolescent students: A cross-sectional study." (with Weina Liu, Hong Sun, Xin Zhang, Qi Chen, Yan Xu, Zhen Ding) Chemosphere 209: 944-949.
[42] "Importance of medical information for health-care utilization in China: a cross-sectional study" (with Yafei Si, Min Su, Wanyue Dong, Zesen Yang, Zhongliang Zhou) The Lancet Volume 392, Supplement 1, October 2018, Page S49.
[41] "Do skewed sex ratios among children promote parental smoking? Longitudinal evidence from rural China" Journal of Substance Use. 23:4, 366-370, DOI: 10.1080/14659891.2017.1421273
Featured by CNPolitics, 163,
[40] Environment and SubjectiveWell-being. (with XB. Zhang. and X. Zhang.) Handbook of Well-being, Happiness and the Environment. (SSCI indexed) https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788119344
Featured by Harvard Health Policy Review
[39] Valuing Air Quality Using Happiness Data: The Case of China. (with Xin Zhang, Xiaobo Zhang) Ecological Economics 137: 29-36.
Featured by The New York Times, Council on Foreign Relations (Dec 16), Council on Foreign Relations (Jan 17), Caixin, CGTN, Yale News, Yale Daily News, ASPPH, IFPRI Blog, JHU-BSPH, Sina, ASPPH, Harvard Health Policy Review
[38] “Happiness in the Air”. (with Xiaobo Zhang and Xin Zhang) Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 85: 81-94.
Featured by IFPRI Digest, GSA, Council on Foreign Relations, Business Insider, CGTN, YSPH News, Counsel&Heal, Quartz, ASPPH, Doctor Radio Show, The Tribune, The Hindu, Al Jazeera, The Indian Express, The News on Sunday, Scroll India, Financial Times, Financial Times (Chinese Edition), My Republica, MakeSpace, Hooked Sober, Sovereign Health, Slate, Harvard Health Policy Review
[37] Health Inequality among Chinese Older Adults: The Role of Childhood Circumstances (with Tom Gill and Binjian Yan), forthcoming Journal of the Economics of Ageing
Featured by Yale Public Health Magazine
[36] “The Intergenerational Impact of Rural Pensions: Comparative Evidence from China”, (with Sun A, Eggleston K.) American Economic Association Annual Meetings 2014. In press, Journal of Economics of Aging.
[35] “Old-Age Pension and Extended Families: How is Adult Children’s Internal Migration Affected?" Contemporary Economic Policy. 34(4): 646–659.
Featured by YSPH News, ASPH, GSA, NIH, IZA Press
[34] “Status and Relative Deprivation in China: Measures, Empirical Evidence, and Economic and Policy Implications”. China: An International Journal (SSCI). 14(1): 151-170.
[33] “Old age pension and intergenerational living arrangements: a regression discontinuity design" Review of Economics of the Household 15(2), 455-476.
Featured by YSPH News, ASPH, GSA, Weeks Population, Global News Connect, NIH, IZA Press
[32] “Relative Deprivation and Individual Well-being: Health, Human Capital and Happiness” IZA World of Labor. DOI:10.15185/izawol.140.
Featured by Yale-China Association, IZA Newsletters (April 2015), One_Pager, Evidence Map, Yale Public Health News, IZA News, mynewsdesk, Innovations Report, Psychologie-aktuell, IZA WOL1, IZA WOL2, IZA WOL3,
[31] Commercial Plasma Donation and Individual Health in Impoverished Rural China Health Economics Review. 4:30 DOI: 10.1186/s13561-014-0030-6.
Featured by YSPH News, ASPH, Yale Public Health Magazine (Fall 2015 - Spring 2016),
[30] Fetus, Fasting, and Festival: The Persistent Effects of in Utero Social Shocks. International Journal of Health Policy and Management 3: 165-169, 2014, DOI: 10.15171/ijhpm.2014.92.
Featured by IZA Newsroom, Yale Public Health Magazine
[29] Essays on Social Networks: Relative Concerns, Social Interactions, and Unintended Consequences. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 96 (2): 607-609. DOI: 10.1093/ajae/aat072.
Featured by PAA Affairs (Fall 2014), ASPH
[28] Gift Escalation and Network Structure in Rural China. PLoS ONE. 9(8): e102104. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0102104
Featured by AAEA, PAA Affairs (Fall 2013), The Economist (November 2013), Yale Health FB Page, PAA Affairs (Fall 2014)
[27] Do Consumers Really Care about Genetically Modified (GM) Food Label? What Do We Know? What Else Should We Know? (with Zhou B, Zhong F.) Journal of Economics and Econometrics 53(2): 32-56.
[26] Geography: Graphics and Economics. The B.E. Journalof Economic Analysis and Policy. (Contributions), (with Nordhaus, W.) 9(2): 1-12. DOI: 10.2202/1935-1682.2072.
[25] How does biotech food labeling affect consumers’ purchasing preferences and the market? Evidence from urban China. (with Zhong, F.) Outlook on Agriculture 38(1), 63-70, IP Publishing Ltd, UK. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5367/000000009787762699
[24] “Do Consumers Really Care about Biotech Food Label?” (with F. Zhong., and B. Zhou.) Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 41(2): 532. DOI: 10.1017/S1074070800002996.
[23] Does biotech labeling affect consumers' purchasing decisions? A case study of vegetable oils in Nanjing, China. (with Lin, W., Tuan, F., Dai, Y., Zhong, F.,) AgBioForum 11(2): 123-133.
Book Chapters
[22] “Consumer Attitudes toward Genetically Modified Foods: A US-China Risk-Benefit Perception Comparison” (with Harris R.) Conference Proceedings for Future of Food and Nutrition Graduate Research Conference, Tufts University.
[21] "The Distribution of Income and Well-Being in Rural China: A Survey of Panel Data Sets, Studies and New Directions" in Liming Wang (editor), "Rising China in the Changing World Economy" Chapter 11, 253-282, Routledge.
[20] “In Utero Exposure to Frequent Social Events and Early Child Malnutrition” (with Zhang X.) in “International Scientific Symposium Proceedings: From Valid Measurement to Effective Decision-making” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 178-180.
[19] “Relative Deprivation in China” in Shenggen Fan, Ravi Kanbur, Shang-Jin Wei and Xiaobo Zhang (editors), “The Oxford Companion to the Economics of China”, Oxford University Press.
[18] “Relative Deprivation” forthcoming in Wherry, Frederick F. and Golson, J. Geoffrey (editors), “Encyclopedia of Economics and Society” SAGE Publications, Inc.
[17] "Relative Deprivation and Individual Well-being" in Klaus F. Zimmermann, Alexander S. Kritikos (editors), "Evidence-based Policy Making in Labor Economics", 200-201, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
[16] “Haze, Aging Brain and Decision Making”. Harvard Health Policy Review 2018(3): 11.
Qian Y, Chen S, Lin Z, Yu Z, Wang M, Hou X, Chen X. The Growing Gap of Unmet Need: Assessing the Demand for, and Supply of, Home-Based Support for Older Adults with Disabilities in 31 Countries. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group, 2023.
Qian Y, Chen S, Hou X, Lin Z, Yu Z, Wang M, Chen X. The Unmet Need: Assessing the Demand for and Supply of Home-Based Support for Older Adults with Disabilities. In: Building Integrated Services for Older Adults around Primary Health Care. World Bank Publications, 2023.
Op-Eds/Reports (in English)
Chen X. 2014. “Head of a Chicken or Tail of a Phoenix? Social Status Concern in China” China-US Focus. March Issue.
Featured by HNC, Yale-China Review
Chen X. 2016. "Social pensions could reshape informal old-age care and improve health". National Institute of Health Blog Post. August 2, 2016. https://obssr.od.nih.gov/social-pensions-could-reshape-informal-old-age-care-and-improve-health/
Chen X. 2016. "How the world’s largest social pension reform is transforming family old-age care". IZA Press. September 15, 2016.
Chen X. 2020. "The Economic Fallout" Yale Public Health Magazine, Fall 2020 Issue.
https://www.pageturnpro.com/Yale-School-of-Public-Health/97057-Yale-Pubic-Health-Magazine--Fall-2020/sdefault.html#page/39
Kohrman, M., Chen, X., Rozelle, S. 2020. "Scholars’ Plea: U.S. and China, Work Together on the Pandemic". The New York Times. May 1.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/opinion/letters/coronavirus-us-china.html
Achieving a fair and effective COVID-19 response: An open letter to Vice-President Mike Pence, and other federal, state and local leaders from Public Health and Legal Experts in the United States" (with Gonsalves, G.S., Kapczynski, A., and Ko, A.I. et al.), March 2, 2020. https://dataspace.princeton.edu/handle/88435/dsp016q182p05z
Chen X. et al. 2021. Does health professionalism among bureaucrats help weather the Covid-19 pandemic? (IZA Newsroom)
Global Council on Brain Health. 2022. “How to Sustain Brain Healthy Behaviors: Applying Lessons of Public Health and Science to Drive Change." Available at www.GlobalCouncilOnBrainHealth.org DOI: https://doi.org/10.26419/pia.00106.001
Journal Articles (in Chinese)
[15] Zhong F., Chen X., X. Ye. 2006. “GM FoodLabeling Policy and Consumer Preference—A Case Study of Actual Edible Oil Sales in Nanjing supermarkets” China Economic Quarterly, 经济学(季刊), 1311-1318.
(using Retail Sales Data)
[14] Zhong F., Chen X. 2008. “GeneticallyModified Food, Consumers’ Purchasing Behavior and Market Share: A Study ofUrban Residents’ Vegetable Oil Consumption in Supermarkets” China Economic Quarterly, 经济学(季刊), 7(3): 1061-1078.
(using Household Survey Data)
[13] Chen X., Zhang B. 2006. “Income Disparity and Consumption in Rural China” Management Review, 管理评论, 2006(2): 14-19.
[12] Chen X., Meng L. 2006. “China’s Agricultural Production Fluctuations and Its Long Term Relations with the Macroeconomy: Data from 1952 to 2003” Journal of Agrotechnical Economics, 农业技术经济, 2006(2): 9-15.
[11] Chen X., Zhang B. 2006. “How is Rural Labor Migration Determined?” Agricultural Economics, 农业经济, 2006(6): 58-59.
[10] Liu B., Pan J., Chen X. 2004. “Financial Development in Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang, Guangdong Provinces and Shanghai City: A Regional Comparative Study of China” Journal of Nanjing Agricultural University (social Science), 南京农业大学学报(社会科学版), 2004(2): 24-30.
[9] Chen X., Zhang B. 2006 “Urban Agriculture and Division of Labor: Case Study of Ten Cities in the world” Rural Economy, 农村经济, 2006(6): 85-88.
[8] Chen X., You J. 2005 “Rural Finance in the Open Economy” Jiangsu Rural Economy, 江苏农村经济, 2005(3): 52-53.
[7] Chen X., Zhou Y. 2005 “Impact of International Agricultural Trade Barrier on Animal Welfare: A Public Choice Model” Journal of Hunan University of medicine (social science), 湖南医科大学学报(社会科学版), 2005(4): 49-51.
[6] Chen X., Chu B. 2005 “Industrial Organization of Chinese Venture Capital Industry: A Comparative Analysis between China and U.S. Using SCP Paradigm”, Industrial Economics Research, 产业经济研究, 2005(2): 61-73.
(Reprinted in Industrial Organization Review (Quarterly), 产业经济评论(季刊), 2005(2))
[5] Chen X., Chu B. 2006. “A Study on the Operation Mechanism of “Small Business Investment Company Program” in the U.S.” Journal of Business Research, 商业研究, 2006(11): 206-208.
[4] Chen X., Chu B. 2005. “An Introduction to the Small Business Investment Company Program (SBIC)” Journal of China Venture Capital, 中国创业投资与高科技, 2005(8): 79-80.
(Reprinted in Journal of Contemporary Finance and Economics, 当代财经, 2005(11): 109-112.)
[3] Chen X., Zhou Y. 2006. “Review: Conference for the 70th Anniversary of Graduate Education in Agricultural Economics in China” China Rural Economy, 中国农村经济, 2006(8): 79-80.
[2] Wang H, Chu B., Chen X. 2009. "Financial Barriers for Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Central and Western China" Journal of Anhui Agriculture Sciences, 安徽农业科学, 14: 6636-38.
Book Chapters (in Chinese)
[1] Chen X., Pan J. “Operation Mechanism of the U.S. Venture Capital Industry” in Development Report of Venture Capital in Jiangsu Province (2004), 江苏创业投资发展报告, Zhong F and Li Z. (eds), Publishing House of Economy and Management, 127-136.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Research Summary
I. The impact of Environmental, Climate and Economic Shocks on Happiness, Mental health, Cognitive Aging, Productivity, and the Economy
Early Life is a critical period for human development. Regardless of whether catch-up growth is ultimately achieved, early exposures to bad environments affect health outcomes in later life. However, much attention has been paid to more extreme natural shocks, while less is known about early exposure to milder but more commonly experienced shocks. Focusing on three examples of mild shocks, i.e. Ramadan fasting, festival overspending, and moderate air pollution, our recent papers review our current knowledge and contributions from multiple disciplines, innovatively quantify the impact of exposure to these milder shocks on long term human capital and health in old age (e.g. frailty, mental health, and cognitive functioning), and summarize the key challenges in exploring such exposures to milder shocks. Rich policy implications are drawn on individual decisions and public policy to improve individual well-being at the early stage of life. These studies were funded by Yale Macmillan Center and NIH. I serve as the PI in these studies.
a. X. Zhang, X.B. Zhang and X. Chen. 2017. Valuing Air Quality Using Happiness Data: The Case of China. Ecological Economics 137(2017): 29-36. PMCID: PMC5626438
b. X. Zhang. Chen, X. and XB. Zhang. 2018. The impact of exposure to air pollution on cognitive performance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (37): 9193-9197. PMCID: PMC6140474
c. X. Chen., Zhang, X., X.B. Zhang. 2017. Happiness in the Air: How Does a Dirty Sky Affect Subjective Well-being? Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 85: 81-94. PMCID: PMC5654562
d. Chen X. 2014. Fetus, Fasting, and Festival: The Persistent Effects of in Utero Social Shocks. International Journal of Health Policy and Management 3: 165-169. PMCID: PMC4181965
e. “Haze, Aging Brain and Decision Making”. Harvard Health Policy Review 2018(3): 11.
f. Environment and Subjective Well-being. (with XB. Zhang. and X. Zhang.) Handbook of Well-being, Happiness and the Environment. (SSCI indexed)
g. “In Utero Exposure to Frequent Social Events and Early Child Malnutrition” (with Zhang X.) in “International Scientific Symposium Proceedings: From Valid Measurement to Effective Decision-making” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 178-180.
h. *"Air pollution associated with non-suicidal self-injury in Chinese adolescent students: A cross-sectional study." (with Weina Liu, Hong Sun, Xin Zhang, Qi Chen, Yan Xu, Zhen Ding) Chemosphere 209: 944-949.
i. Chen, X. 2018. Smog, Cognition and Real-World Decision Making. In press, International Journal of Health Policy and Management.
j. Top 10 research priorities in Spatial Lifecourse Epidemiology. (with Peng Jia, Jeroen Lakerveld, Jianguo Wu, Alfred Stein, Elizabeth Root, Clive E. Sabel, Roel Vermeulen, Justin V. Remais, Ross C. Brownson, Sherif Amer, Qian Xiao, Limin Wang, Monique Verschuren, Tong Wu, Youfa Wang, Peter James) Environmental Health Perspectives
k. Climate change and quality of health care: evidence from extreme heat. (with Y.Si, ZZ Liang, M. Su) The Lancet, Volume 394, Supplement 1, October 2019, Page S94.
l. Spatial Lifecourse Epidemiology Reporting Standards (ISLE-ReSt) Statement. Health & Place
m. Depression in the house: the effects of household air pollution from solid fuel use among the middle-aged and older population in China (with Yan LIU and Zhijun YAN). Science of the Total Environment
n. "The Impact of Prenatal Exposure to Sunshine on Birth Outcomes." (with Xin Zhang, Yixuan Wang, Xun Zhang) Science of the Total Environment
o. "The Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Temperature Extremes on Birth Outcomes: The Case of China" (with Chih Ming Tan, XiaoboZhang, Xin Zhang) Journal of Population Economics
p. Attributable risk and economic cost of hospital admissions for mental disorders due to PM2.5 in Beijing (with ZT Wu et al.) Science of the Total Environment
q. Hospital Admission Risks and Ambient Fine Particulate Matter Exposure in Beijing, China (with Ziting Wu et al.) Atmospheric Environment
r. The Morbidity Costs of Air Pollution through the Lens of Health Spending in China (with Xin Zhang, Xun Zhang, Yuehua Liu, Xintong Zhao) Journal of Population Economics
II. Life Course Health: Early-life and mid-life circumstances, behavioral factors, and health disparities for the aging population.
Socioenvironmental circumstances during childhood and adulthood and behavioral factors account for a sizable proportion of differences in aging. We quantify dimensions of aging and disentangle how various factors coalesce to produce between-person differences in aging. In the long term, our studies in this area aim to draw important implications for potential interventions. We recently developed and validated a novel multi-system-based aging measure, Phenotypic Age, which has been shown to capture mortality and morbidity risk in the full U.S. population and diverse subpopulations. We also evaluated associations between a comprehensive set of factors, including childhood and adulthood circumstances, and aging outcomes for the Americans and Chinese, to determine what contribute to differences in aging measures. We also investigated inequality in health expenditures and smoking.
a. Zuyun Liu, Xi Chen, Thomas M. Gill, Chao Ma, Eileen M. Crimmins, Morgan E. Levine. 2019. Disentangling the contribution of childhood and adulthood circumstances and genetics to phenotypic aging: prospective cohort study. bioRxiv 384040; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/384040. PLoS Medicine.
b. Chen X, Yan BJ, Gill T. 2019. Early Life Environments and Health Inequality among the Elderly: Comparative Evidence from China and the U.S. Journal of Economics of Aging.
c. Y. Si, ZL Zhou, X. Wang, X. Lan, D. Wang, SQ Gong, X. Xiao, C. Shen, YL Ren, DT Zhao, ZH Hong, Y Bian, X. Chen. 2019 Decomposing Inequality in Catastrophic Health Expenditure for Self-reported Hypertension Household in Urban Shaanxi, China from 2008 to 2013: Two Waves’ Cross-Sectional Study. in press, BMJ Open.
d. Si, Y.; Zhou, Z.; Su, M.; Wang, X.; Li, D.; Wang, D.; He, S.; Hong, Z.; Chen, X. Socio-Economic Inequalities in Tobacco Consumption of the Older Adults in China: A Decomposition Method. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 1466. PMCID: PMC6069145
e. Linking Early Life Risk Factors to Frailty in Old Age: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (with Yaxi Li, Qian-Li Xue, Michelle C. Odden, Chenkai Wu) Age and Ageing
f. Understanding health and social challenges for ageing and long-term care in China. (with Wei Yang, Bei Wu, Siying Tan, Bingqin Li, Vivian Lou, Zhuo Chen, James Fletcher, Ludovici Carrino, Hu Bo, Anwen Zhang, Min Hu, Yixiao Wang). Research on Aging.
g. Associations of Genetics and Life Course Circumstances with A Novel Aging Measure that Captures Mortality Risk. (with Zuyun Liu, Thomas M Gill, Chao Ma, Eileen Crimmins, Morgan E Levine) Innovation in Aging, Volume 3, Issue Supplement_1, November 2019, Pages S322–S323, https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igz038.1177.
h. *Health Inequality among Chinese Older Adults: The Role of Childhood Circumstances (with Tom Gill and Binjian Yan), forthcoming Journal of the Economics of Ageing
i. “Early Life Environments and Health Inequality among the Elderly: Comparative Evidence from China and the U.S.” (with Thomas Gill and Binjian Yan), Social Indicators Research.
j. "Prevalence of Memory-Related Diagnoses among U.S. Older Adults with Early Symptoms of Cognitive Impairment" (with Qian Y, Tang D, Kelley A, Li J.) Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences
III. Social Security Reform, Pensions, Intra-Family Dynamics, and Healthy Aging.
Pension programs create a sizable increase in income that can be attributed to a specific family member. They help assess how a family is affected by one of its member gaining control of resources. Meanwhile, family is the primary informal institution for life‐cycle savings. When a formal institution serves an overlapping purpose, we are curious to know how that overlap affects intra-family dynamics. The recently launched pension program in China provides us with an important opportunity to study this issue. Using a regional dataset in an impoverished region in China, we show that the pension income has been effective in stimulating service consumption of the elderly, promoting independent living of elderly parents, and increasing the migration rate among adult children. We are the first to publish the results on intra-family arrangements. Using another dataset from a developed region, we find that pension receipt imposes smaller impacts on intergenerational transfers and living arrangements of extended families. Our early evidence holds important implications. First, pension directed at the elderly could spill over to other generations. Second, pension programs that transfer income to elderly population should be more cautious as substantive changes in living arrangement may offset some benefits through reduced instrumental support to parents directly provided by children. I serve as the PI on NIH grants that fund the studies.
a. Chen X. Wang TY, Busch S. 2019. Does Money Relieve Depression? Evidence from Social Pension Expansions in China. Social Science & Medicine. 220: 411-420.
b. Chen, X., A. Sun., and K. Eggleston. 2018. The Impact of Social Pensions on Intergenerational Transfers and Living Arrangements: Comparative Evidence from China, Journal of the Economics of Aging. 12: 225-235. PMCID: PMC6286058
c. Chen X. 2016. Old-Age Pension and Extended Families: How is Adult Children’s Internal Migration Affected? Contemporary Economic Policy 34(4): 646–659. PMCID: PMC5386403
d. Chen X. 2015. Old Age Pension and Intergenerational Living Arrangements: A Regression Discontinuity Design. Review of Economics of the Household 13: 1-22. PMCID: PMC5642942
e. Social pension expansions and health-care utilisation in China: cross-sectional evidence from the New Rural Pension Scheme. (with H. Hu, Y.Si) The Lancet, Volume 394, Supplement 1, October 2019, Page S91.
f. Effect of family income on cognition in older adults in China: an instrumental-variables decomposition analysis (with Han Hu, Yafei Si) The Lancet, Volume 394, Supplement 1, October 2019, Page S81.
g. "Leaving Money on the Table? Pension Enrollment Decisions in China" (with Jody Sindelar and Lipeng Hu) Journal of the Economics of Aging
h. "Social Security Expansion and Neighborhood Cohesion: Evidence from Community-Living Older Adults in China". (with Bradley, E., and G. Tang.) Journal of the Economics of Aging
i. How and to What Extent Can Pensions Facilitate Increased Use of Health Services by Older People: Evidence From Social Pension Expansion in Rural China (with Shanquan Chen et al. 2020) BMC Health Services Research
IV. Inequality and the feeling of relative deprivation have detrimental effect on well-being.
People who are unable to maintain the same standard of living as others around them experience a sense of relative deprivation that has been shown to impose negative effects on their health, human capital, and happiness. A few of my recent papers are the first to comprehensively documenting the theoretical and empirical evidence from multiple countries. Drawing interdisciplinary evidence, I develop and review a novel set of main relative deprivation measures. Importantly, I summarize and test the potential mechanisms that link inequality and relative deprivation with worsening health status and happiness we observe widely. This string of studies has very important policy implications. Despite striking reductions in absolute poverty around the world, the status of relative poverty (reflected in relative deprivation) has been worsening. Moreover, the effects of relative deprivation explain why average happiness has been stagnant over time despite sharp rises in income. My studies propose consumption taxes on status-seeking spending, along with official and traditional sanctions on excess consumption and redistributive policies, to lessen the negative impact of relative deprivation.
a. Chen X. 2015. Relative Deprivation and Individual Well-being: Low Status and A Feeling of Relative Deprivation Are Detrimental to Health and Happiness. IZA World of Labor 140: 1-10. PMCID: PMC5638129. (reprinted in Klaus F. Zimmermann, Alexander S. Kritikos (editors), "Evidence-based Policy Making in Labor Economics", 200-201, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.)
b. Chen X. 2016. Status and Relative Deprivation in China: Measures, Empirical Evidence, and Economic and Policy Implications. China: An International Journal 14(1): 151-170. PMCID: PMC5639922
c. * Chen X. 2014. “Relative Deprivation in China” in S. Fan, R. Kanbur, SJ. Wei, X. Zhang (editors), The Oxford Companion to the Economics of China, 406-411, Oxford University Press.
d. * Chen X. 2011. “The Distribution of Income and Well-Being in Rural China: A Survey of Panel Data Sets, Studies and New Directions” in LM. Wang (editor), Rising China in the Changing World Economy, 253-282, Routledge.
e. “Relative Deprivation in China” in Shenggen Fan, Ravi Kanbur, Shang-Jin Wei and Xiaobo Zhang (editors), “The Oxford Companion to the Economics of China”, Oxford University Press.
f. “Relative Deprivation” forthcoming in Wherry, Frederick F. and Golson, J. Geoffrey (editors), “Encyclopedia of Economics and Society” SAGE Publications, Inc.
V. Social Networks and Behavior (smoking, gift-giving, plasma donation, nutrition intake).
Informal social networks have played an important role in insuring against shocks in traditional societies. People, especially the poor rely much on these informal networks. My research is among the first in economics to document the behavior of gift-giving and providing loans in social networks and initiate an in-depth analysis of the network structure and its evolvement. Due to the rapid economic growth and the worsening inequality in developing contexts, people feel more costly to maintain these networks. As the rich spend more and more on social events, it drives up the cost of ceremonies. When poor people respond to this condition by competing for higher status, they often divert resources from meeting basic needs to inefficient spending on status-seeking goods. Children born to poor families exposed to more ceremonies in utero often suffer from malnutrition. The negative impact of relative deprivation on well-being can be reduced by curbing such spending among the poor. My other studies in this field include examining how social network interactions shape stigmatized behavior and vulnerability to health shocks (such as selling blood plasma), drive up prices of gifts and festival spending, squeeze basic food consumption, and intensify parents’ pressure to marry their sons in the marriage market with highly skewed sex ratios favoring girls. The squeeze of basic food consumption offers us a more plausible explanation to the Deaton food puzzle as to why nutritional status of the poor tends to be stagnant amid rapid income growth in developing countries. It questions conventional anti-poverty programs that do not fully understand social customs. These studies were the core of my PhD dissertation work and won the Outstanding Dissertation Award by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
a. Chen X. 2014. Gift-giving and Network Structure in Rural China: Utilizing Long-term Spontaneous Gift Records. PLoS ONE. 9(8): e102104. PMCID: PMC4128647
b. * Chen X. 2014. Award Winning Papers: Essays on Relative Concerns, Social Interactions, and Unintended Consequences. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 96(2): 607-608.
c. Chen X. 2014. Commercial Plasma Donation and Individual Health in Impoverished Rural China. Health Economics Review 4: 30. PMCID: PMC4502079
d. Chen X. 2018. Do skewed sex ratios among children promote parental smoking? Longitudinal evidence from rural China. Journal of Substance Use 23:4: 366-370. PMCID: PMC6217791
e. Does Daughter Deficit Promote Paternal Substance Use? Evidence from China. forthcoming in Journal of Hospital Management and Health Policy.
VI. Health Reforms in China
a. Assessing the effects of the percentage of chronic disease in households on health payment-induced poverty in Shaanxi Province, China. (with Xin Lan, Zhongliang Zhou, Yafei Si, Chi Shen, Xiaojing Fan, Gang Chen, Dantong Zhao) BMC Health Services Research. 2018, 18:871.
b. Chen, X. 2018. Promoting Population Health: Some U.S. Lessons for China at the Crossroads. pp 11-13, Nov-Dec 2018 Issue of the Journal Insight. American Chamber of Commerce.
c. "Importance of medical information for health-care utilization in China: a cross-sectional study" (with Yafei Si, Min Su, Wanyue Dong, Zesen Yang, Zhongliang Zhou) The Lancet Volume 392, Supplement 1, October 2018, Page S49.
d. China in Transition: Health, Wealth, and Globalization. (with Gordon G. Liu) in press. LANCET Public Health.
e. Revisiting gender gap in quality of health care in urban China: a standardised patient audit study. (with Z.L. Zhou, Y.Si, M. Su) The Lancet, Volume 394, Supplement 1, October 2019, Page S25.
f. China CDC Weekly: Bridging the Global and Chinese Public Health Communities. invited commentary. China CDC Weekly. 2019. 1(3): 43-44.
g. Barriers of effective health insurance coverage for rural-to-urban migrant workers in China: A systematic review and policy gap analysis (Chen, Chen, Feng, et al. 2020) BMC Public Health
h. Measuring spatial accessibility and within-province disparities in accessibility to county hospitals in Shaanxi Province of Western China based on web mapping navigation data. (with Shen, C., Zhou, Z., Lai, S. et al.) International Journal for Equity in Health 19, 99 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-020-01217-0.
i. “Comparison of health care utilization among patients affiliated and not affiliated with healthcare professionals in China” (with Yafei Si; Zhongliang Zhou et al.) BMC Health Services Research
VII. Genetically modified food and consumer behavior.
Genetically modified (GM) food labeling has been involved in a fierce debate around the world, focusing on whether it is necessary and what kind of labeling policy, i.e. voluntary or mandatory, should be adopted. In China, a mandatory labelling policy has been successfully enforced in the vegetable oils industry since August 2003. The information provided on the label is neutral and aims at informing consumers that the product contains GM ingredients. As the first study on this issue, my coauthors and I used both retail scanner data and household survey data to explore the impact of this policy on consumers’ preference over GM food and actual purchasing behavior. We find that the market share of GM oils immediately decreased as a result, though the decrease was small in absolute terms. In addition, the changes in the GM oil market share were affected by the structural effect of the rich, while there was no apparent gross consumption effect of the poor. We are also the first to discuss underexplored key issues in this literature, including discrepancy between stated preferences and revealed preferences, short-term versus long-term market trend, supermarket share versus other market shares, the real decision marker, and so on. China and the U.S. have been a major consumer and a major producer of GM soybean in the world, respectively. Therefore, China’s labelling regulation and reliable evidence on its impact were expected to have a significant impact on both international and domestic trade in GM products, for example, regarding herbicide-tolerant soybeans from the U.S. I served as PI or Co-I in these studies sponsored by the USDA.
a. Lin, W., Tuan, F., Dai, Y., Zhong, F., and X. Chen. 2008. Does Biotech Labeling Affect Consumers’ Purchasing Decisions? A Case Study of Vegetable Oils in Nanjing using AIDS Model. Journal of Agrobiotechnology Management and Economics (AgbioForum) 11(2): 123-133.
b. Zhong, F. and X. Chen. 2009. How Does Biotech Food Labeling Affect Consumers’ Purchasing Preferences and the Market? Evidence from Urban China. Outlook on Agriculture 38(1): 63-70.
c. Chen, X., B. Zhou., and F. Zhong. 2010. Do Consumers Really Care about Genetically Modified (GM) Food Label? What Do We Know? What Else Should We Know? Journal of Economics and Econometrics 53(2): 32-56.
d. Chen, X. and Harris, R. 2010. Consumer Attitudes toward Genetically Modified Foods: A US-China Risk-Benefit Perception Comparison” Conference Proceedings for Future of Food and Nutrition Graduate Research Conference, Tufts University.
e. Zhong F., Chen X., X. Ye. 2006. “GM FoodLabeling Policy and Consumer Preference—A Case Study of Actual Edible Oil Sales in Nanjing supermarkets” China Economic Quarterly, 经济学(季刊), 1311-1318.
f. Zhong F., Chen X. 2008. “GeneticallyModified Food, Consumers’ Purchasing Behavior and Market Share: A Study ofUrban Residents’ Vegetable Oil Consumption in Supermarkets” China Economic Quarterly, 经济学(季刊), 7(3): 1061-1078.
g. “Do Consumers Really Care about Biotech Food Label?” (with F. Zhong., and B. Zhou.) Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 41(2): 532. DOI: 10.1017/S1074070800002996.
VIII. Pandemic Economics and Health Policy
a. Impacts of Social and Economic Factors on the Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China (with Yun Qiu, Wei Shi), forthcoming, Journal of Population Economics
b. [76] Pandemic Economicsand the Transformation of Health Policy (with Annie Fan) Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies. Taylor & Francis
c. Chen, X. 2020. “The Economic Fallout”. Yale Public Health Magazine, Fall 2020 Issue: P36-37.
d. Chen X., Qiu, Y., Shi W., and Yu, P. 2020. “Optimal Travel Restrictions in Epidemics.” Social Science Research Network. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3665543
e. Li, X., Lai, W.,Wan, Q., and Chen, X., 2020. “Role of Professionalism in the PolicyResponse to COVID-19: Does a Public Health or Medical Background Help?” SSRN. 10.2139/ssrn.3713238.