Abstracts Category : Other

Impacts of Migration on Health and Well-being in LaterLife in China: Evidence from the China Health and RetirementLongitudinal Study (CHARLS)

by Bo Hou

China has undergone rapid urbanisation over thelast few decades, involving both migration into urban areas and thegeographical expansion of urban areas. While we know that bothmigration and urbanisation have a bidirectional relationship withhealth, this relationship has only been studied to a limited extentin China. In particular, the exiting literature has neglected theeffects of migration and urbanisation on health and well-being inlater life, instead focusing on the relationship between theseoutcomes over the short term in relation to temporaryrural-to-urban movements.Using an inter-disciplinary approach,drawing literature from economics, epidemiology and sociology, thisthesis conceptualises and examines the association betweendifferent forms of migration and their relationship with later lifehealth and well-being. It then compares these relationships withthe impact of the geographical expansion of urban areas on thosewho do not migrate, but consequently become urbanised. It thenattempts to draw conclusions on likely causal processes. To dothis, I use the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study(CHARLS), a nationally representative and multi-disciplinarydataset that examines the circumstances of the Chinese populationaged over 45 years old. Moreover, using the structure of thedataset, this thesis is able to independently study migration andurbanisation processes. The results show that there are strongassociations between migration status and later life health andwell-being in China, with migrations to or within urban areashaving the largest positive effects, these hold even afteraccounting for selective features of migration. Moreover, theresults show there are no significant differences in health andwell-being in later life between return migrants and non-migrants;although return migration seems to positively relate to riskyhealth behaviours in later life. In addition, the results show thaturbanisation in China has largely exogenous and positive impacts onhealth and well-being. This thesis contributes to the literature byexamining different forms of migrations in China and showing howthese migrations may relate to health and well-being in later life.The results highlight the need to study return migration andurbanisation along with studying migration in China in order tounderstand the impacts of migration on health and well-being, asthese processes may have impacts on the relationship betweenmigration and health and well-being too.Advisors/Committee Members: MARSHALL, ALAN AD, BANKS, JAMES JW, Marshall, Alan, Nazroo, James, Banks, James.