Has the compulsory school merger program reduced the welfare of rural residents in China?

Weixian Cai, Gong Chen and Feng Zhu

China Economic Review, 2017, vol. 46, issue C, 123-141

Abstract: The compulsory school merger program in rural regions of China imposed higher education costs on rural residents, decreased their consumption and reduced their welfare. In this study, we employ household-level data and the difference-in-differences method to analyze the policy effect on residents' consumption and education costs. Our results show that the compulsory school merger program had a negative effect on the consumption of rural residents and inflicted multiple education costs on them. We also find that the increase in the distance between school and home is an important explanation for the effect of this policy on rural residents' education costs.

Keywords: Compulsory school merger program; Rural residents' consumption; Precautionary saving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 D12 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:chieco:v:46:y:2017:i:c:p:123-141

DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2017.07.010

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