农村地区母亲就业对儿童营养状况的影响

    摘要：文章使用“中国食物与营养监测系统（CFNSS）”2008年数据研究了中国农村地区母亲外出就业对5岁以下儿童营养状况的影响。作者使用倾向匹配得分（PSM）方法控制内生性后，结果显示，虽然外出就业可以获得较高收入，但母亲外出就业的儿童的营养状况显著低于母亲在本地就业的儿童。而母亲在本地从事非农就业或农业就业，虽然家庭收入差别明显，但对儿童营养状况却没有显著影响。可见，随着农村经济发展水平的提高，收入对儿童营养状况的边际效应在递减，而母亲照料的重要性在不断显现。因此，文章认为，提升农村儿童营养状况，提高其营养摄入水平固然重要，但母亲对儿童的照料也应得到应有的重视。
     
    Mother’s Employment and Children’s Nutrition: Evidence from Rural China
    Abstract:  Based on the data of Chinese Food and Nutrition Surveillance System, this paper studies the effects of mothers’ employment on the nutrition of children under 5. To control possible selectivity causing endogeneity, propensity score matching (PSM) method is employed in this study. It is shown that nutrition status of the children with mothers migrating to urban areas is significantly lower than that of those with mother working in hometown. On the other hand, there is no significant difference in nutrition status between children with mother working in agricultural sector and non-agricultural sector in hometown, although their incomes are different significantly. The result implies that marginal effect of income on children’s nutrition is decreasing. Therefore in rural regions, in order to improve the children’s nutrition status, it becomes more important to promote mother’s caring other than solely nutrition intake level.
    文章出处：中国人口科学，2013年第1期