Farewell to confucianism: The modernizing effect of dismantling China's imperial examination system

Ying Bai

Journal of Development Economics, 2019, vol. 141, issue C

Abstract: This study uses 1899–1908 prefecture-level panel data to assess how the likelihood of passing the civil service examination affected modernization before and after the examination system's abolition. Because higher quotas were assigned to prefectures with an agricultural tax of over 150,000 piculs, we use a regression discontinuity design to generate an instrument that resolves potential endogeneity and ensures robust results. We find that following abolition, prefectures with higher quotas of successful candidates tended to establish more modern firms and send more students for overseas study in Japan. A subsequent analysis using an individual dataset further shows that the skill level of these overseas students increased after abolition, especially in regions with higher per capita quotas. This finding implies that the examination system led to substantial misallocation of talents.

Keywords: Imperial civil examination; Incentive; Modern firms; Overseas study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N95 O10 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:141:y:2019:i:c:s0304387818315475

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2019.102382

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