Education expansion and returns to schooling in urban China, 2001–2010: evidence from three waves of the China Urban Labor Survey

Wenshu Gao and Russell Smyth

Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, 2015, vol. 20, issue 2, 178-201

Abstract: This study examines the effect of the expansion in education that occurred in the first decade of the twenty-first century on the returns to schooling in urban China for migrants and non-migrants using three waves of the China Urban Labor Survey (CULS), corresponding to 2001, 2005 and 2010. Our main finding is that the premium to education increased by about 2%–3% over a period in which there was a rapid increase in education levels. This result is consistent with the demand for skilled labor increasing at a time when China tries to move up the value-added chain and an observed increase in urban wage inequality. We find that the education premium is higher for non-migrants than migrants and higher for males than females.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1080/13547860.2014.970607

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