title: How does social capital matter to the health status of older adults? Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey.
abstract: This paper uses longitudinal data from China to examine the causal relationship between structural social capital and health among Chinese older adults. We employ various econometric strategies to control for the potential endogeneity of social capital and account for the possible contextual confounding effects by including community-level social capital. We use three indicators to measure individuals' general, physical, and mental health. Results indicate that social capital has a significant and positive effect on general and physical health. Based on our primary IV findings, a one standard-deviation increase in social capital leads to a 4.9 standard-deviation decrease in the probability of having bad health and a 2.2 standard-deviation decrease in physical activity limitations. Our results are robust to a series of sensitivity checks. Further analysis suggests heterogeneous effects by age but not by gender or area of residence.
authors.affiliation: National School of Development, Peking University, China.
authors.forename: Gordon G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Public Administration, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, China. Electronic address: xuexindong@zuel.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xindong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, United States.
authors.forename: Chenxi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Social Science Survey, Peking University, China.
authors.forename: Yafeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012737:Sex Factors; D066270:Social Capital; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: China; Fixed effects; Health; Heterogeneity; Instrumental variable; Social capital