An over time analysis on the mechanisms behind the education-health gradients in China

•We examine the over time changes in the education-health gradients in the past two decades in China.•We do not find a clear education-health gradient in the early 1990s.•The education-health gradient emerges and steadily grows over time.•We test a number of theories that may explain the observed trend.

In this paper, we examine the over time changes in the relationship between education and health in the past two decades in China. We do not find a clear education-health gradient in the early 1990s. However, the education-health gradient emerges and steadily grows. We test a number of different theories that may explain the observed trend. We show that the mechanisms behind the education-health gradient in developing countries might be different from those in developed countries, and heterogeneous across health measures, both of which may have some important policy implications.