The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Disruptions to Education, and the Returns to Schooling in Urban China

Albert Park, John Giles and Meiyan Wang
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Meiyan Wang: Institute for Population and Labor Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

No 2015-21, HKUST IEMS Working Paper Series from HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies

Abstract: This paper provides new evidence on educational disruptions caused by the Cultural Revolution and identifies the returns to schooling in urban China by exploiting individual-level variation in the effects of city-wide disruptions to education. The return to college is estimated at 49.8% using a conventional Mincer-type specification and averages 37.1% using supply shocks as instruments and controlling for ability and school quality, suggesting that high-ability students select into higher education. Additional tests show that the results are unlikely to be driven by sample selection bias associated with migration or alternative pathways through which the Cultural Revolution influenced adult productivity.

Keywords: returns to schooling; wages; education; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 J24 J30 O15 O53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2015-03, Revised 2015-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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http://iems.ust.hk/assets/publications/working-papers-2015/iemswp2015-21.pdf First version, 2015 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Disruptions to Education, and the Returns to Schooling in Urban China (2019)
Working Paper: The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Disruptions to Education, and the Returns to Schooling in Urban China (2015)
Working Paper: The great proletarian cultural revolution, disruptions to education, and returns to schooling in urban China (2008)
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