Risen from Chaos: What drove the spread of Mass Education in the early 20th century China

This paper uses the Chinese historical path to mass education in the early 20th century to tackles one hotly debated question Ð what factors explain the rise of mass schooling? Given China's political turmoil and economic backwardness through the early 20th century, the expansion of mass education that was mainly driven by increasing public efforts seems puzzling. Based on a newly assembled dataset, we find that economic factors had little explanatory power in the rise of mass schooling. In contrast, both regional political stability and informal governance imposed by gentry (one important elite group in Chinese history) presented their critical importance. In particular, first we find that counties where previously had more traditional gentry (degree holders via the civil service exam system) provided significantly more public primary schools under the new education system, therefore had higher primary enrolment ratios. This finding is robust to various checks, including adopting an IV strategy. Secondly, the positive effect of local gentry on mass education development were larger in regions where suffered higher level of administrative instability. The explanation this paper proposes is that the near collapse of formal institution through this political chaotic historical period allowed gentry members, as traditional elites in local communities, seized administrative responsibilities, and deliberately supported the mass education development due to their private interests in modern schooling as a potential way to preserve their elites statues.