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The Returns to Schooling in Rural China: Evidence from the Cultural Revolution Education Expansion

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During the Cultural Revolution China embarked on a remarkable, albeit temporary, expansion of post-primary education in rural areas. This education expansion affected tens of millions of children who reached secondary school age in the late 1960s and 1970s. Exploiting the education expansion and variation across birth cohorts, we estimate the returns to schooling in rural China using household survey data from the mid-1990s. Our estimated returns of 11 to 20 percent are substantially higher than most previous estimates. We calculate the impact of the education expansion on subsequent labor market outcomes of the affected cohorts and find that they enjoyed significantly higher earnings than pre- and post-expansion cohorts.

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  • Terry Sicular & Juan Yang, 2015. "The Returns to Schooling in Rural China: Evidence from the Cultural Revolution Education Expansion," University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP) Working Papers 20152, University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP).
    • Handle: RePEc:uwo:hcuwoc:20152
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    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Jun & Yang, Juan & Li, Bo, 2017. "Pain of disasters: The educational cost of exogenous shocks evidence from Tangshan Earthquake in 1976," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 27-49.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education Expansion; Secondary Education; Returns to Schooling; Rural China; Cultural Revolution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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