Venue：246, Chengze Garden Campus

Report I: COVID-19 Outbreak, Health Accessibility and Government Response

Wang Xiaoqian, PhD candidate from School of Economics

Abstract：The onset and unprecedented scope of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have raised great concern about global health. Many policies are implemented to contain the pandemic and deliver medical services to infected people. However, healthcare accessibility for people with other diseases may have been negatively affected. Exploiting the difference-in-differences methods and event study methods, this paper uses administrative data on public requests in China to empirically examines the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on healthcare accessibility and the government response. The results show that during the two outbreaks, the daily number of requests for health care access increased significantly relative to the earlier days compared with the same period one year ago. The response time decreased significantly during the two outbreaks, suggesting that the government has actively copied with public requests.

Report II: The Consequences of Health Shocks on Households: Evidence from China

Wang Yajie, PhD candidate from School of Economics

Abstract：Unexpected adverse health shocks may be catastrophic for households due to excessive medical expenditures, physical and mental suffering, and reduced income over the long term. This paper examines the effect of unexpected adverse health shocks on household income, labor supply, physical and mental health, and health behaviors in China by analyzing two nationally representative datasets and adopting a Difference-in-Differences augmented with Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM-DID) approach. We find that an unexpected health shock results in annual financial burden of 37,517 yuan (5,862 dollars, or 13.9% of household net asset), and a loss of annual household income of 3,234 yuan (505 dollars, or 6.74% of household annual income). It raises the probability of an average household falling under poverty line by 3.1 percentage points. In addition, we document a strong intrahousehold spillover effect of health shocks on mental health and preventive care behaviors.

Report III：Shadows Under the Halo: The Impact of Ordinal Rank Decrease on Noncognitive Outcomes

Yu Shuang, Phd Candidate from School of Economics

Abstract：This paper studies how a decrease in ordinal rank affects noncognitive outcomes of students. Our results show that experiencing a decrease in rank damages the highest-ranked students’ mental health and social networks relative to other students’ outcomes, while the impact on other top-ranked students is small and insignificant. In addition, more teacher attention, longer study time, higher parental achievement expectation, and stricter teacher assessment pressure may increase the impact of rank decrease on highest-ranked students. We examine the role of study-oriented time allocation, pressure from parents, and negative teacher feedback as key mechanisms.