Liu, Ying
(2022)
THREE ESSAYS ON HEALTH ECONOMICS.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
This thesis contains three essays on health economics. The first chapter studies the world’s first Community HealthWorkers (CHWs) program—China’s Barefoot Doctors(1969-
1985). Using data collected and digitized from China’s historical gazetteers, I find that exposure to barefoot doctors significantly reduced infant and under-5 mortality rate. I also shed light on the underlying mechanism, and find evidence consist with breastfeeding playing an important role. The second chapter looks further at the long-term impacts of the Barefoot Doctor project. I find that in utero and early childhood access to Barefoot Doctors significantly improves self-reported health, boosts educational attainment, and increases working hour nearly 40 years after the program. This provides one of the first empirical evidence on the long-term impacts of CHWs. The third chapter looks at China’s 1966-1968 epidemic meningitis outbreak which infected over 3 million people and caused the deaths of more than 160 thousands. Anecdotal evidence shows that the Revolutionary Tour — a nationwide movement that encourages a large-scale population mobilization at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, exacerbated the epidemic. Using data from gazetteers on the county level epidemic meningitis cases, I find that places closer to the railroads have significantly higher density of cases at the beginning of the epidemic in 1966, especially the railroads on the Revolutionary Tour route.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
13 August 2022 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
28 July 2022 |
| Approval Date: |
4 December 2024 |
| Submission Date: |
2 August 2022 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
69 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Economics |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
health economics, China, community health workers, barefoot doctor program, the Cultural Revolution, epidemic meningitis. |
| Date Deposited: |
04 Dec 2024 16:54 |
| Last Modified: |
04 Dec 2024 18:00 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/43623 |
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