ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: With the reduction of intergenerational temporal transfers, financial transfers from adult offspring to their elderly parents are prevailing in rural China. Although much has been done, little is known about the association between the expansion of intergenerational transfers and rural old people's physical health in China. The purpose of this paper was to examine the effect of intergenerational financial transfers on the elders' physical health in rural China. Using data collected from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), panel data fixed effect model and threshold model are employed to estimate the impact of intergenerational financial transfers on the old people's physical health in rural areas. Results showed that; although, the intergenerational financial transfers have a positive effect on the old people's physical health, no linear relationship exists between them. Intergenerational financial transfers are clearly less effective for low-income old people's physical health than those of middle-income, while the effect on high-income old people's health is the most insignificant. Studies concerning the effect of intergenerational financial transfers on the elders' health in developing countries remain limited. Findings of this paper provided great insights into how intergenerational transfers, such as intergenerational financial transfers, may affect the well-beings of old residents in rural areas. Additionally, this study can offer inspiration to policy makers regarding what measures they should take to enhance rural old residents' well-beings.
RESUMO: Com a redução de transferências temporais intergeracionais, as transferências financeiras da prole adulta a seus pais idosos estão prevalecendo em China rural. Embora muito tenha sido feito, pouco se sabe sobre a associação entre a expansão das transferências intergeracionais e a saúde física dos idosos rurais na China. O objetivo deste artigo é examinar o efeito das transferências financeiras intergeracionais sobre a saúde física dos anciãos na China rural. Usando dados coletados do estudo longitudinal de saúde e aposentadoria da China (CHARLS), o modelo de efeito fixo de dados do painel e o modelo de limiar são empregados para estimar o impacto das transferências financeiras intergeracionais na saúde física dos idosos em áreas rurais. Os resultados mostram que, embora as transferências financeiras intergeracionais tenham um efeito positivo na saúde física dos idosos, não existe relação linear entre eles. As transferências financeiras intergeracionais são claramente menos eficazes para a saúde física de idosos de baixa renda do que as de renda média, enquanto o efeito sobre a saúde de idosos de alta renda é o mais insignificante. Os estudos sobre o efeito das transferências financeiras intergeracionais sobre a saúde dos anciãos nos países em desenvolvimento permanecem limitados. Os achados deste artigo fornecem grandes insights sobre como as transferências intergeracionais, e as transferências financeiras intergeracionais podem afetar o bem-estar de idosos residentes em áreas rurais. Além disso, este estudo pode oferecer inspiração para os decisores políticos sobre as medidas que devem tomar para melhorar o bem-estar dos residentes rurais.
ABSTRACT
Healthy rural reconstruction is a widely explored intervention implemented by China Rural Health Devel-opment Project with the support of the World Bank and UK Department for International Development. By using initial pro-ject baseline data survey, mid-term evaluation and supervision, terminal evaluation of acquired qualitative and quantitative data,this paper analyzes the intervention policy design and initial effects of China's healthy rural reconstruction. With transforming the living environment in rural areas as the starting point, the project has relatively achieved good results, by using different policy measures such as improving the environment, creating a social environment conducive to villagers' health, expanding and providing high-quality health services, foster healthy behaviors and lifestyles, etc. The main results include the expansion of the project to cover 745 administrative villages, the environment of healthy villa-ges is much better than other neighboring villages, villagers' health knowledge has been greatly increased, lifestyle be-haviors of villagers have improved, the attitudes and participation rate of residents in cultural and sports activities have improved, etc. This paper suggests implementing the healthy rural reconstruction nationwide. It is very important to in-tegrate the concept of healthy village throughout the connotation of all kinds of new rural reconstruction, so the concept of health is deeply rooted in rural areas and imperceptibly change people's living behaviors and habits.