Estimating Intergenerational Health Transmission in Taiwan with Administrative Health Records

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Abstract
We use population-wide administrative health records to estimate intergenerational persistence in health in Taiwan. We calculate latent health by applying principal components analysis to a battery of indicators for specific conditions and intensity of general practitioner usage. We estimate the rank-rank slope to be between 0.15 and 0.20 depending on the specific parent-child relationship. We show that health transmission is stronger coming from mothers than from fathers and is stronger to sons than to daughters. In addition, health persistence is higher at the upper tail of the parent health distribution. Persistence estimates that use medical expenditures are slightly lower at 0.10 to 0.15.Taken in combination with previous studies in other countries, there is mounting evidence that the rate of intergenerational persistence in health is lower than for other forms of socioeconomic status such as income.