In response to health shocks, parents make compensatory and reinforcing investments in different dimensions of human capital across children. Using household data on Chinese child twins whose average age is 11, we find that, compared with the twin sibling who did not suffer from negative early health shocks at age 0–3, the other twin sibling who did received 305 yuan more health investment, but received 182 yuan less educational investment. Overall, the family acts as a net equaliser in response to child early health shocks across children.
Authors
![James Heckman](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-07/James%20Heckman.jpg?itok=zU2q-IGg)
Research Associate University of Chicago
James is a Research Associate of the IFS and the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago.
![Gabriella Conti](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-07/Gabriella%20Conti.jpg?itok=-Vt-fIXE)
Research Fellow University College London
Gabriella is a Research Fellow of the IFS and a Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics and in the Department of Social Science at UCL.
![Person graphic](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/IFS-person-graphic.png?itok=hWCtTSrz)
Junsen Zhang
![Person graphic](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/IFS-person-graphic.png?itok=hWCtTSrz)
Junjian Yi
Journal article details
- DOI
- 10.1111/ecoj.12291
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Issue
- Volume 125, Issue Feature issue, November 2015
Suggested citation
Conti, G et al. (2015). 'Early health shocks, intra-household resource allocation and child outcomes' 125(Feature issue/2015)
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