Education Fever: Inequality, Fertility, and Growth, with Application to China

Mark Gradstein

No 20962, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Demand for skilled labor and social status accorded by educational achievements induce a race to acquire education, dubbed “education fever†. In conjunction with credit market constraints and in the context of quantity-quality tradeoff, this, in turn, may reduce fertility, especially in well educated families, and create cross section inequality while limiting intergenerational mobility. The resulting inequality is persistent which, in turn, may have adverse implications for economic growth. It is argued that these phenomena are consistent with recent economic and social developments in China.

Keywords: China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 J13 O11 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-12
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