The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Disruptions to Education, and Returns to Schooling in Urban China

Giles, John ; Park, Albert ; Wang, Meiyan

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ABILITY OF STUDENTS;    ACCESS TO EDUCATION;    ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION;    ADULTS;    AGE COHORT;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-4729
RP-ID  :  WPS4729

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

In determining whether a country'shigher education system should be expanded, it is importantfor policymakers first to determine the extent to which highprivate returns to post-secondary education are anindication of the scarcity of graduates instead of the highunobserved ability of students who choose to attendpost-secondary education. To this end, the paper identifiesthe returns to schooling in urban China usingindividual-level variation in educational attainment causedby exogenous city-wide disruptions to education during theCultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. For city-cohorts whoexperienced greater disruptions, children's educationalattainment became less correlated with that of their fathersand more influenced by whether their fathers heldadministrative positions. The analysis calculates returns tocollege education using data from the China Urban LaborSurvey conducted in five large cities in 2001. The resultsare consistent with the selection of high-ability studentsinto higher education. The analysis also demonstrates thatthese results are unlikely to be driven by sample selectionbias associated with migration, or by alternative pathwaysthrough which the Cultural Revolution could have affectedadult productivity.