Quality of migrant schools in China: evidence from a longitudinal study in Shanghai

Yuanyuan Chen and Shuaizhang Feng
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Yuanyuan Chen: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

Journal of Population Economics, 2017, vol. 30, issue 3, No 10, 1007-1034

Abstract: Abstract As spaces in public schools are limited, a substantial number of migrant children living in Chinese cities but without local hukou are enrolled in private migrant schools. This paper studies the quality of migrant schools using data collected in Shanghai in 2010 and 2012. Although students in migrant schools perform considerably worse than their counterparts in public schools, the test score difference in mathematics has almost been halved between 2010 and 2012, due to increased financial subsidy from the government. We rule out alternative explanations for the convergence in test scores. We also conduct a falsification test and find no relative changes in the performance of migrant school students based on a follow-up survey of a new cohort of students in 2015 and 2016, a period with no changes in financial subsidies to migrant schools.

Keywords: Rural-to-urban migration; Hukou; Migrant school; School quality; Financial subsidy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I22 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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DOI: 10.1007/s00148-016-0629-5

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