Children Left Behind in China : The Role of School Fees

Dang, Hai-Anh ; Huang, Yang ; Selod, Harris

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: child migration;    school fees;    public education spending;    urbanization;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7881
RP-ID  :  WPS7881

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The barriers faced by Chineserural-urban migrants to access social services, particularlyeducation, in host cities could help explain why themajority of migrants choose to leave their children behind.This paper proposes a theoretical framework that allows foran explicit discussion of the link between school fees andthe decision of migrant parents to bring their children tothe city. The analysis instruments the endogenous schoolfees with unexpected shocks to the city's publiceducation spending, and empirically tests the theoreticalpredictions. The findings suggest that higher fees determigrant workers from bringing their children, especiallytheir daughters; reduce the number of children they bring;and increase educational remittances to rural areas for thechildren left behind. Increases in school fees most affectvulnerable migrant workers, and are likely to have strongerimpacts during an economic crisis. These findings hold fordifferent model specifications and robustness checks.