中国农村留守儿童营养状况分析

Nutritional Status of Left-behind Children in Rural China

本文研究我国农村留守儿童的营养状况,并采用倾向得分匹配与双重差分法测算父母外出对儿童营养状况造成的冲击即平均处理效应。进一步,我们结合营养收入弹性,探讨父母外出的收入效应与忽视效应。结果显示：留守儿童的营养不良问题尤为突出,并且仅父亲外出和父母均外出会显著恶化儿童的营养状况;此外,留守儿童的大部分营养素的收入弹性都非常小,这导致父母外出的收入效应较小,而忽视效应主导了父母外出对留守儿童营养的影响。

Using a Propensity Score Matching and Difference-in-Difference method,this study estimates the average treatment effect of the nutritional status of left-behind children in rural China.The income elasticity of nutrients is calculated and adopted to estimate the income effect and ignorance effect due to the lack of parental care.Results show that left-behind children have deficient intake of most nutrients and their nutritional status are negatively affected by their fathers＇ migration.Moreover,the income elasticities of most nutrients for left-behind children are tiny.Consequently,income growth only has limited impact on their nutritional status,and the overall effect is dominated by the ignorance effect.