An Empirical Research On The Influence Of Income To Chinese Residents’ Health

As an important component of human capital, health is an important indicator of people’s quality of life, and firmly correlated with income. With the rising income level and expanding income inequality, the effect of income on health has attracted increasing concerns. Based on the human capital theory and the income inequality-health hypothesis theory and using compare analysis, the paper analyzes the influence of income under different measurements to residents’health in rural-urban china. At last, it advances some policy suggestions.At the empirical research part, the paper uses the data of the China Health and Nutrition Survey in2006, choosing the18-65years old adults as the research objects which are from nine provinces in China, choosing self-rated health as health’s measurement, choosing income, income inequality, and occupational status as income’s measurement. Then it selects Logit model for analysis of relationship between health and income, relationship between health and income inequality, and that between health and occupational status. And it studies the interactions of income, income ineauality and occupational status. Given the dual structure of China, rural and urban samples are regressed separately.The findings of descriptive research on the status of income and health indicate that, the income inequality situations in residents in urban-rural China manifest expanding inequality in individual, urban-rural, region and occupational status. And the status of health shows inequality and is unequal between urban-rural, and among different regions, income levels and occupational status.The results of empirical research on the influence of income level and income inequality to health indicate that, with the rising income level health level will be improved. There is an "inverted-U" curve describing the relationship between health and income inequality. Income inequality has positive effect on health when it is relatively at a low level. When the Gini coefficient is beyond the critical point, income inequality has negative effect on health. When it comes to the interactions between income level and income inequality indicate, income effect will be weaken with the expanding income inequality and income inequality effect will be weaken with the rising income level in rural residents. But the interactions are not notable in urban residents.The results of empirical research on the influence of occupational status to health indicate there are occupational differences in the relationship between income and health, and that between income inequality and health. And it indicates occupational status, plays an important role in the relationship between income and health, and that between income inequality and health. For rural residents, the two correlations mentioned above are weak when it comes to the agricultural-working and non-employed. While for urben residents, it’s the steady-jobed that shows the weak correlations mentioned above.