Early Life Adversities and Well-being Later in Life: Evidence from China

Population aging has imposed several challenges to our societies. People now live longer, but they also want to live in good health and financial well-being. This thesis studies how exposure to early life adversities affects individual well-being later in life using evidence from China. Chapter 2 investigates how liquidity constraints and the presence of educational fixed costs affect children’s human capital investment by their parents and old-age transfers from children to their parents. Chapter 3 examines the effects of exposure to the Chinese Cultural Revolution on individual lifetime income. Chapter 4 looks at the health effects of exposure in utero to the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and Great Famine (1959-1961).