METHODS article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1593356
This article is part of the Research TopicPublic Health Outcomes: The Role of Social Security Systems in Improving Residents' Health WelfareView all 75 articles
The Impact of Export Shocks on Child Health: Evidence from China
Provisionally accepted
Yuting Zhang*
OKSANA VLADIMIROVNA MASHEVSKAYA- Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus
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Amidst sluggish global economic growth, the fading demographic dividend, and accelerating population aging, understanding child health and its potential determinants is critical for sustainable social and economic development. This study empirically examines the potential impact of export expansion on child health in China during the country's trade liberalization process. Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) and UN Comtrade Database, we construct a fourperiod unbalanced panel dataset and employ a Bartik instrumental variables (IV) strategy to mitigate endogeneity concerns and estimate the potential health consequences of export shocks. Our findings reveal that greater export shocks are associated with a statistically significant reduction in childhood morbidity in China. Specifically, a one-unit increase in export exposure corresponds to a 0.14 percentage point decrease in child morbidity. Mechanism analysis suggests that this relationship operates through multiple channels, including increases in parental wages, changes in parental work intensity, and the dynamics of left-behind children. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that the health effects of trade vary across subgroups, with stronger improvements observed among boys, urban children, and children residing in western China. Our findings offer empirical evidence on the health costs of trade liberalization for children in China, enriching the literature on globalization and child well-being.
Keywords: Export shocks, Child Health, Morbidity, Bartik-IV, Trade liberalization
Received: 13 Mar 2025; Accepted: 09 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang and MASHEVSKAYA. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yuting Zhang, Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus
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