The Impact of the Nutrition Improvement Program on Children’s Health in Rural Areas: Evidence from China

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated the nutrition improvement program (NIP) in China. A difference-in-differences model with propensity score matching was employed to diagnose the explicit effects of the NIP on the physical and mental health of students in rural areas, followed by a sensitivity analysis to validate the reliability of the results. Our findings suggest that the NIP improved the physical and mental health of students under compulsory education in rural areas. It was also found that NIP was more beneficial to students with financial difficulties, left-behind children in rural areas and children with one or more siblings. Based on our results, we suggest the government to implement NIP to narrow the health gap between urban and rural children.

KEYWORDS:

• Nutrition improvement program
• rural areas
• physical and mental health
• PSMDID model

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• H43
• H51

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Postdoctoral Foundation of Chongqing special project [Project No. 201921354] and National Social Science Foundation of China general project [grant number 17BJL087], Scientific Research Foundation of Chongqing Technology and Business University [Project No. 1755007], Innovative Research Team Foundation of Chongqing Technology and Business University [Project No. CJSYTD201706].