Migrant Children, Human Capital Investment, and Migrant Household Economic Outcomes: Evidence from China

This study examines whether a joint parent-child migration arrangement is associated with migrant household economic performance in China. The exposure identifies households in which a school-age child lives or studies outside the hukou county with at least one employment-migrant parent. The study also examines education and health expenditure as associated household allocation patterns and tests whether regional policy support conditions the focal association. The analysis combines China Family Panel Studies household data with province-level indicators. Baseline estimates show positive associations with household income and consumption. The within-household transition estimates and the restricted migrant-parent sample are also positive, although time-varying selection remains possible. Education and health expenditure move with migration status and income, but these relationships are not treated as causal mediation. The policy interaction is positive under household-clustered inference but is imprecisely estimated after clustering at the province level. The evidence therefore supports conditional associations rather than causal effects.