Giles John, Mu Ren
Department of Economics, Michigan State University, 110 Marshall-Adams Hall, East Lansing, MI 48864, USA.
Demography. 2007 May;44(2):265-88. doi: 10.1353/dem.2007.0010.
Recent research has shown that participation in migrant labor markets has led to substantial increases in income for families in rural China. This article addresses the question of how participation is affected by elderly parent health. We find that younger adults are less likely to work as migrants when a parent is ill. Poor health of an elderly parent has less impact on the probability of employment as a migrant when an adult child has siblings who may be available to provide care. We also highlight the potential importance of including information on nonresident family members when studying how parent illness and elder care requirements influence the labor supply decisions of adult children.
近期研究表明，参与农民工劳动力市场已使中国农村家庭收入大幅增加。本文探讨了老年父母健康状况如何影响子女参与农民工劳动力市场这一问题。我们发现，当父母生病时，年轻人外出打工的可能性较小。当成年子女有兄弟姐妹可以提供照料时，老年父母的健康状况不佳对其外出打工就业可能性的影响较小。我们还强调，在研究父母患病及养老需求如何影响成年子女的劳动力供给决策时，纳入非本地家庭成员信息可能具有重要意义。
