Private Educational Expenditure Inequality between Migrant and Urban Households in China’s Cities

(To consult this DP, please send an e-mail to dem@uni.lu) China’s household registration (hukou) system restricts access to public schools to children without local city hukou. Migrant households thus need to finance privately all education-related costs their children incur. In contrast, local urban households often top- up their spending with private tutoring. Consequently, private educational expenditure of households in China’s cities reflects both willingness to investment in human capital and institutional constraints. We compare the educational expenditure of parents migrating with children to China’s cities to that of local urban parents, with a special focus on the role of the household registration system (hukou) in shaping these inequalities. We find that overall expenditure of migrants overwhelmingly exceeds that of locals after controlling for social and economic characteristics, but expenditure types are different. More detailed analysis of three subcategories of the education-related expenditure shows that migrant households spend more on tuition and sponsorship compared to households with local city hukou, but much less on private tutoring.