Impacts of city life on nutrition: Evidence From resettlement lotteries in China
Urban environments are thought to improve food security, by offering enhanced access to markets and income opportunities. Yet this idea is hard to test empirically due to an abundance of confounding factors and selection issues. This study leverages a resettlement program in China to provide the fir...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | Inglés |
| Published: |
Wiley
2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168981 |
| _version_ | 1855515117109641216 |
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| author | Leng, Ganxiao Qiu, Huanguang Filipski, Mateusz J. |
| author_browse | Filipski, Mateusz J. Leng, Ganxiao Qiu, Huanguang |
| author_facet | Leng, Ganxiao Qiu, Huanguang Filipski, Mateusz J. |
| author_sort | Leng, Ganxiao |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Urban environments are thought to improve food security, by offering enhanced access to markets and income opportunities. Yet this idea is hard to test empirically due to an abundance of confounding factors and selection issues. This study leverages a resettlement program in China to provide the first quasi-experimental estimate of city life on food consumption and nutrition among low-income households. Lottery-determined timing of resettlement enables causal inference. We base our empirics on a 3-year panel and a range of difference-in-differences and matching methodologies. We find that those who were resettled to towns significantly increased both food consumption and diet variety, with increased intake of several macro- and micro-nutrients. Diet quality mostly improved, but we also found signs of over-consumption, notably of carbohydrates. Our evidence further suggests that our impacts are primarily due to improved market access. This stands in contrast to recent literature that finds little or no effect of living environments on food consumption. Instead, we reveal a significant impact of urban environments in shaping diets, bolstering the notion that supply-side channels do matter in some contexts.
JEL Classification: I15, O18, R23 |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace168981 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| publisherStr | Wiley |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1689812025-04-02T18:13:08Z Impacts of city life on nutrition: Evidence From resettlement lotteries in China Leng, Ganxiao Qiu, Huanguang Filipski, Mateusz J. food security households nutrition resettlement towns urban environment Urban environments are thought to improve food security, by offering enhanced access to markets and income opportunities. Yet this idea is hard to test empirically due to an abundance of confounding factors and selection issues. This study leverages a resettlement program in China to provide the first quasi-experimental estimate of city life on food consumption and nutrition among low-income households. Lottery-determined timing of resettlement enables causal inference. We base our empirics on a 3-year panel and a range of difference-in-differences and matching methodologies. We find that those who were resettled to towns significantly increased both food consumption and diet variety, with increased intake of several macro- and micro-nutrients. Diet quality mostly improved, but we also found signs of over-consumption, notably of carbohydrates. Our evidence further suggests that our impacts are primarily due to improved market access. This stands in contrast to recent literature that finds little or no effect of living environments on food consumption. Instead, we reveal a significant impact of urban environments in shaping diets, bolstering the notion that supply-side channels do matter in some contexts. JEL Classification: I15, O18, R23 2025-04 2025-01-14T15:54:31Z 2025-01-14T15:54:31Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168981 en Open Access Wiley Leng, Ganxiao; Qiu, Huanguang; and Filipski, Mateusz. 2025. Impacts of city life on nutrition: Evidence From resettlement lotteries in China. Health Economics 34(4): 677-698. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4925 |
| spellingShingle | food security households nutrition resettlement towns urban environment Leng, Ganxiao Qiu, Huanguang Filipski, Mateusz J. Impacts of city life on nutrition: Evidence From resettlement lotteries in China |
| title | Impacts of city life on nutrition: Evidence From resettlement lotteries in China |
| title_full | Impacts of city life on nutrition: Evidence From resettlement lotteries in China |
| title_fullStr | Impacts of city life on nutrition: Evidence From resettlement lotteries in China |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impacts of city life on nutrition: Evidence From resettlement lotteries in China |
| title_short | Impacts of city life on nutrition: Evidence From resettlement lotteries in China |
| title_sort | impacts of city life on nutrition evidence from resettlement lotteries in china |
| topic | food security households nutrition resettlement towns urban environment |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168981 |
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