Access to Public Schools and the Education of Migrant Children in China

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

No 6853, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: A significant proportion of migrant children in China are not able to attend public schools for lack of local household registration (HuKou), and turn to privately-operated migrant schools. This paper examines the consequences of such a partially involuntary school choice, using survey data and standardized test scores from field work conducted in Shanghai. We find that migrant students who are unable to enroll in public schools perform significantly worse than their more fortunate counterparts in both Chinese and Mathematics. We also use parental satisfaction and parental assessment of school quality as alternative measures of the educational outcome and find similar results. Our study suggests that access to public schools is the key factor determining the quality of education that migrant children receive.

Keywords: migrant school; education of migrant children; standardized test score (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I28 J15 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2012-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-dev, nep-edu, nep-mig, nep-tra and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: China Economic Review, 2013, 26, 75-88

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Related works:
Journal Article: Access to public schools and the education of migrant children in China (2013)
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