Heterogeneity Analysis of the Effects of Haze Pollution on the Health of Left-Behind Children in Urban and Rural Areas in China

Differences in economic development, public services, production, and lifestyle between urban and rural areas lead to significant differences in people’s attitudes and abilities to cope with environmental pollution. Furthermore, environmental pollution has heterogeneous effects on the health of individuals in urban and rural areas. The article takes the health of left-behind children as an entry point to analyze the impact of haze pollution on the health of urban and rural left-behind children. Using children’s survey data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey and the urban and rural raster PM2.5 data from 2000 to 2015, this study applies a logit model to analyze the heterogeneity of the impact of haze pollution on the health of left-behind children. This research finds that, first, the health effects of haze pollution on rural left-behind children are more severe than those on rural children not left behind. Moreover, the same results are not present in the sample of urban left-behind children. Second, the health of left-behind children is more vulnerable to haze pollution than the others when neither parent is at home in rural areas. Third, no evidence proves that haze pollution has more severe health effects on rural children aged 0–6 years with parents away from home. Meanwhile, haze pollution will more easily influence the health status of left-behind children aged 7 years and above in rural areas due to their parents’ absence. Fourth, the finding that haze pollution significantly affects the health of left-behind children with parents away from home only applies to the central and western rural samples in China.