Entrepreneurial failure influences the health of Chinese farmers: Evidence from the data of China labor-force dynamic survey

High failure rate is a primary characteristic of current farmer entrepreneurial activities in China. We examined the impact of entrepreneurial failure on the health of Chinese farmers based on the data from the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS). We found that entrepreneurial failure significantly depresses the health of Chinese farmers. Specifically, the farmers with entrepreneurial failure experience are more likely to have low self-reported levels of psychological and physical health, and the probability of experiencing severe injury and illness is elevated by 4.6 %. Mechanism analysis shows that entrepreneurial failure depresses the health of Chinese farmers through weakening informal social support and increasing the probability of overwork. Furthermore, these effects are more significant in the older generation of farmers who were born before 1980 and the farmers striving to make a living.