The impact of the Rural Minimum Living Standard
Guarantee (Rural Dibao) Program on child nutrition outcomes

doi:10.1016/j.jia.2023.11.020

Journal of Integrative Agriculture ›› 2024, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (2): 444-456.DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2023.11.020

收稿日期:2023-02-20 接受日期:2023-08-22 出版日期:2024-02-20 发布日期:2024-01-29

The impact of the Rural Minimum Living Standard Guarantee (Rural Dibao) Program on child nutrition outcomes

Dian Chen¹, Xiangming Fang^{1, 2#}, Yu Chen¹, Xiaodong Zheng³, Zhuo Chen⁴, Rodney B.W. Smith⁵

¹Academy of Global Food Economics and Policy, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
² School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta 30303, USA
³School of Economics, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
⁴ College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens 30602, USA
⁵Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul 55108, USA

Received:2023-02-20 Accepted:2023-08-22 Online:2024-02-20 Published:2024-01-29
About author:#Correspondence Xiangming Fang, E-mail: xmfang@cau.edu.cn
Supported by:
The authors are grateful for support from the National Social Science Fund of China (21AJL015).

摘要/Abstract

Abstract:

The Rural Minimum Living Standard Guarantee (Rural Dibao) is an important unconditional cash transfer program to alleviate poverty in rural China. Despite the importance of children’s nutrition in breaking poverty cycles, little is known about the impact of Rural Dibao on child nutrition outcomes. Using China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this paper examines the effects of Rural Dibao on child nutrition outcomes and investigates potential pathways and heterogeneous effects. We exploit propensity score matching and difference-in-differences techniques to evaluate the effects of the Rural Dibao program on child nutrition outcomes. Our results suggest that Rural Dibao significantly impacts the nutrition outcomes of children up to 15 years of age. Specifically, our results suggest that Rural Dibao improves child height-to-age z-scores by 1.05 standard deviations and lowers the probability of stunting by 11.9 percentage points. Additional analyses suggest that increased protein intake is the main pathway through which Rural Dibao participation contributes to better nutrition outcomes. We also find that the effect of the program is more pronounced among girls, children who are non-left-behind or live with highly educated mothers, and those from low-income families and poor areas. Our findings suggest that Rural Dibao participation helps improve child nutrition outcomes through improving diet quality.

Key words: Rural Minimum Living Standard Guarantee , nutrition , height-to-age z-scores , stunting , rural China

. [J]. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 2024, 23(2): 444-456.

Dian Chen, Xiangming Fang, Yu Chen, Xiaodong Zheng, Zhuo Chen, Rodney B.W. Smith.

The impact of the Rural Minimum Living Standard Guarantee (Rural Dibao) Program on child nutrition outcomes [J]. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 2024, 23(2): 444-456.

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The impact of the Rural Minimum Living Standard Guarantee (Rural Dibao) Program on child nutrition outcomes

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