Market transition, social stratification, and health disparities: A comparison of cross-regional, cross-sectoral, and longitudinal analysis

This dissertation examines changing and varying patterns of health disparities in different institutional settings under Chinese market transition. Time, regions, and economic sectors serve as a concrete institutional context according to heterogeneity of Chinese economic reform. This dissertation accordingly consists of three studies that use temporal approach, regional approach, and segmentation approach to operationalized market transition and explore the link among institutional transformation in general and Chinese market transition in particular, social stratification, and health disparities using data from Chinese Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS). A longitudinal analysis (Chapter 2) and cross-regional comparison (Chapter 3) compares effects of human capital (education) and political power (cadre status) on self-rated health across time and regions in reform-era China. Mixed ordinal logistic analyses show that education has a stronger relationship with health in more recent years (i.e., 2006) and in more marketized region (i.e., coastal region). The association of cadre status with health is shown to be weaker in more recent years and in more marketized region, however its negative association fails to reach statistical significance. Finally, a cross-sectoral comparison study (Chapter 4) focuses on two socioeconomic indicators, income and education, showing a more prominent relationship between SES and self-rated health in the private sector of urban China