Teaching to the tests: An economic analysis of traditional and modern education in late imperial and republican China
Noam Yuchtman
Explorations in Economic History, 2017, vol. 63, issue C, 70-90
Abstract:
A traditional education system, based on the Confucian classics, was a pillar of imperial China's social structure for centuries, preparing elites for a series of highly competitive exams conferring gentry status and civil service positions. Reformers in late imperial China called for the modernization of educational institutions, seeing in Western education the skills necessary to develop China's economy. In the late 19th century, the traditional education system was joined by a “modern”, Western track, which offered teaching in science, math, social science, law, and engineering. In this paper, early 20th century employee records from the Tianjin-Pukou Railroad are analyzed to identify differences in labor market outcomes associated with study in the traditional and modern educational systems. The employee records reveal that modern and traditional education were both associated with wage premiums, but that these were significantly larger for individuals trained at high levels in the modern system, especially those trained in engineering. Individuals trained in the traditional system worked disproportionately in the clerical department of the railroad, while those with modern education were more often in managerial and technical roles. Qualitative and quantitative evidence suggests that these results are not driven by sorting into educational institutions according to ability. These findings indicate that beyond years of schooling, the content of schooling can play an important role in the process of economic development.
Keywords: Educational content; Educational institutions; Industrial development; Republican China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I25 J24 N15 N35 O14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014498316301978
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
Working Paper: Teaching to the tests: an economic analysis of traditional and modern education in late imperial and republican China (2017) 
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:exehis:v:63:y:2017:i:c:p:70-90
DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2016.11.003
Access Statistics for this article
Explorations in Economic History is currently edited by R.H. Steckel
More articles in Explorations in Economic History from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().