Publication
Parental Health Penalty on Adult Children's Employment: Gender Difference and Long-Term Consequence
with Haili Huang, Journal of Health Economics, 2024
This study examines the gender-specific and enduring impacts of parental health shocks on adult children's employment in China, where both formal care and health insurance are limited. Using an event-study approach, we establish a causal link between parental health shocks and a notable decline in female employment, which persists for at least six years following the shock. Male employment, however, exhibits minimal change on average, although this conceals an increase among poor families, indicating a channel beyond heightened informal care. Our findings underscore the consequences of ``growing old before getting rich'' for developing countries.
with Haili Huang, Journal of Health Economics, 2024
This study examines the gender-specific and enduring impacts of parental health shocks on adult children's employment in China, where both formal care and health insurance are limited. Using an event-study approach, we establish a causal link between parental health shocks and a notable decline in female employment, which persists for at least six years following the shock. Male employment, however, exhibits minimal change on average, although this conceals an increase among poor families, indicating a channel beyond heightened informal care. Our findings underscore the consequences of ``growing old before getting rich'' for developing countries.
Working Papers
Occupational Retirement and Pension Reform: the Roles of Physical and Cognitive Health
(Under Review, Version: May 2023)
Despite the increasing cognitive demands of jobs, our understanding about the role of health in retirement has centered on its physical dimensions. This paper documents a novel fact that retirement corresponds with physical and cognitive decline distinctly across jobs. Then I estimate a dynamic programming model of retirement that incorporates multiple health dimensions, allowing differential effects on labor supply across occupations. Results show that the effect of cognitive health surges exponentially after age 65, and it explains a notable share of the employment decline in cognitively demanding occupations. Under pension reforms, poor physical health mainly impedes manual workers from delaying retirement, whereas poor cognitive health shows no impact for them but dampens the response of clerical and professional workers, which unevenly exacerbates the welfare losses across occupations. The results suggest that ignoring the cognitive dimension will generate biased assessments on retirement policies due to the shifting job requirements.
(Under Review, Version: May 2023)
Despite the increasing cognitive demands of jobs, our understanding about the role of health in retirement has centered on its physical dimensions. This paper documents a novel fact that retirement corresponds with physical and cognitive decline distinctly across jobs. Then I estimate a dynamic programming model of retirement that incorporates multiple health dimensions, allowing differential effects on labor supply across occupations. Results show that the effect of cognitive health surges exponentially after age 65, and it explains a notable share of the employment decline in cognitively demanding occupations. Under pension reforms, poor physical health mainly impedes manual workers from delaying retirement, whereas poor cognitive health shows no impact for them but dampens the response of clerical and professional workers, which unevenly exacerbates the welfare losses across occupations. The results suggest that ignoring the cognitive dimension will generate biased assessments on retirement policies due to the shifting job requirements.
A New Testing Method for Justification Bias Using High-Frequency Data of Health and Employment
with Zixi Ye and Xuan Zhang
(Under Review, Version: February 2024)
Justification bias, wherein retirees may report poorer health to rationalize their retirement, poses a major concern to the widely-used measure of self-assessed health in retirement studies. This paper introduces a novel method for testing the presence of this bias in the spirit of regression discontinuity. The underlying idea is that any sudden shift in self-assessed health immediately following retirement is more likely attributable to the bias. Our strategy is facilitated by a unique high-frequency data that offers monthly, in contrast to the typical biennial, information on employment, self-assessed health, and objective health conditions. Across a wider post-retirement time frame, we observe a decline in self-assessed health, potentially stemming from both justification bias and changes in actual health. However, this negative effect diminishes with shorter intervals, indicating no evidence of such bias. Our method also validates a widely-used indirect testing approach.
with Zixi Ye and Xuan Zhang
(Under Review, Version: February 2024)
Justification bias, wherein retirees may report poorer health to rationalize their retirement, poses a major concern to the widely-used measure of self-assessed health in retirement studies. This paper introduces a novel method for testing the presence of this bias in the spirit of regression discontinuity. The underlying idea is that any sudden shift in self-assessed health immediately following retirement is more likely attributable to the bias. Our strategy is facilitated by a unique high-frequency data that offers monthly, in contrast to the typical biennial, information on employment, self-assessed health, and objective health conditions. Across a wider post-retirement time frame, we observe a decline in self-assessed health, potentially stemming from both justification bias and changes in actual health. However, this negative effect diminishes with shorter intervals, indicating no evidence of such bias. Our method also validates a widely-used indirect testing approach.
Assortative Mating and Geographic Sorting
with Jiaming Mao
(draft available upon request)
with Jiaming Mao
(draft available upon request)
Intergenerational Contracts and Female Labor Supply
with Yang Yue
(draft available upon request)
with Yang Yue
(draft available upon request)
Multidimensional Health, Heterogeneous Job Requirements, and Older Workers' Labor Supply
(draft available upon request)
How does the effects of health on retirement vary with the diverse ability requirements across jobs? By linking the restricted version of Health and Retirement Study to detailed information about occupation requirements, this paper explores retirement effects of the interaction between job requirements and multiple health dimensions. I find self-reported health has larger retirement effects in jobs that are more physically demanding but no such gradient by cognitive requirements. However, separating health into the physical and cognitive dimensions reveals significant heterogeneous effects. While physical health shows greater gradients than the self-reported health by physical requirements, cognitive health appears to affect retirement more strongly in occupations with higher cognitive requirements. Robustness checks suggest these gradients are unlikely to be driven by the reverse causality.
(draft available upon request)
How does the effects of health on retirement vary with the diverse ability requirements across jobs? By linking the restricted version of Health and Retirement Study to detailed information about occupation requirements, this paper explores retirement effects of the interaction between job requirements and multiple health dimensions. I find self-reported health has larger retirement effects in jobs that are more physically demanding but no such gradient by cognitive requirements. However, separating health into the physical and cognitive dimensions reveals significant heterogeneous effects. While physical health shows greater gradients than the self-reported health by physical requirements, cognitive health appears to affect retirement more strongly in occupations with higher cognitive requirements. Robustness checks suggest these gradients are unlikely to be driven by the reverse causality.
Publications in Chinese
The Impact of Wage Gaps across Firms on Regional Income Distribution in China: An Analysis based on Firm Heterogeneity
with Lichao Wu, Economic Science (经济科学), 2013 vol. 1, 74-87, in Chinese
with Lichao Wu, Economic Science (经济科学), 2013 vol. 1, 74-87, in Chinese
Unpublished Manuscripts
A Search of Reference-dependent Preferences from Indian Boat Owners' Dynamic Labor Supply
with Xavier Gine, Monica Martinez-Bravo and Pedro Mira
Recently, researchers have extended the focus from the traditional inter-temporal labor supply to the labor supply under reference-dependent preference. However, existing empirical works are all based on a static framework. With the data of South Indian boat owners' daily labor participation and daily values of catches, this paper proposes and estimates a dynamic structural model to characterize boat owners' daily labor supply decisions within a week. By the identification of specific structural parameters, the existence of reference-dependent preference can be tested. Our primary results suggest controlling for the heterogeneity in the disutility of working and the value of catches is crucial for obtaining unbiased estimates. Based on a more homogeneous subsample from 2006 to 2007, our results suggest the reference-dependent preference exists for these boat owners.
with Xavier Gine, Monica Martinez-Bravo and Pedro Mira
Recently, researchers have extended the focus from the traditional inter-temporal labor supply to the labor supply under reference-dependent preference. However, existing empirical works are all based on a static framework. With the data of South Indian boat owners' daily labor participation and daily values of catches, this paper proposes and estimates a dynamic structural model to characterize boat owners' daily labor supply decisions within a week. By the identification of specific structural parameters, the existence of reference-dependent preference can be tested. Our primary results suggest controlling for the heterogeneity in the disutility of working and the value of catches is crucial for obtaining unbiased estimates. Based on a more homogeneous subsample from 2006 to 2007, our results suggest the reference-dependent preference exists for these boat owners.