 Senior high school enrollment of migrant children in China: The role of relocationXiangbo Liu, Weihao Fu and Yueping Song Journal of Asian Economics, 2025, vol. 100, issue C Abstract: The education of migrant children is a significant concern in China, yet their access to post-compulsory education remains poorly understood. Leveraging nationally representative longitudinal data and a quasi-experimental design with random classroom assignment, this study first reveals that migrant children exhibit a 6.6 percentage-point higher senior high school enrollment rate compared to their local peers within the same classroom. This counterintuitive phenomenon stems from the institutional arbitrage: by relocating to their hukou-registered locations to take the entrance examination, migrant children combine the advantages of higher-quality junior high education in urban destinations with lower admission thresholds in their hometowns. Policy implications suggest that merely loosening examination restrictions risks incentivizing speculative educational migration. Instead, systemic reforms, such as equitable resource redistribution, are critical to addressing the root causes of educational inequality. Keywords: Internal migration; Migrant children; Education; Post-compulsory school enrollment; China (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:asieco:v:100:y:2025:i:c:s1049007825001290 DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2025.102005 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Asian Economics is currently edited by C. Wiemer More articles in Journal of Asian Economics from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.