The unprecedented large scale rural-to-urban migration in China has left many rural children living apart from their … parents. In this study, we examine the impact of parental migration on the nutritional status of young children in rural areas … the height of children, but it improves their weight. We provide suggestive evidence that the improvement in weight may be …

associated with the nutritional status of children in rural and urban China. Results from instrumental variables regressions show … a substantial adverse effect of children's exposure to parental migration on height-for-age Z-scores of left …-behind children relative to children who migrate with their parents. Additional results from a standard Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition …

children's nutritional status in migrant households. Measures of social disadvantage are based on China's hukou system of … hukou status is negatively associated with children's weight-for-age Z-scores, even after controlling for household … characteristics, and girl children exhibit poorer nutritional status than boys. Results from a quantile decomposition procedure …