Guanyi Yang Research CV More

Does Wealth Matter? An Assessment of China’s Rural-Urban Migration on the Education of Left-Behind Children

Guanyi Yang (Colorado College (St. Lawrence University at publication)); Cynthia Bansak (St. Lawrence University)
Published article · China Economic Review, Vol. 59, 101365. DOI 10.1016/j.chieco.2019.101365
Theme: Children, families and schooling in rural China

Parental migration raises the chance that a left-behind child in rural China is enrolled in school on time when the family is poor, but the benefit shrinks as family wealth rises and reverses above a house size of about 148 square meters; poorer migrant parents compensate for lost time by spending more on schooling.

Abstract

This paper decomposes the impact of parental migration on the education of children left behind. In particular, we examine whether children are enrolled in school on a timely basis according to their age when their parents are away. We found both theoretical and empirical evidence to support that parental migration generates a strong positive impact on timely enrollment if a child is from a less wealthy background. However, the effect decreases with family wealth, and reverses after reaching a threshold; we find this point using family house size as our proxy and the turning point occurs at a moderate size of approximately 148 square meters. In addition, we find a compensating effect that migrants tend to spend more on a child’s education investment to offset for the loss of parental time care. Lastly, we found the overall impact of parental migration is negative on the timely enrollment of child. Thus, with the important heterogeneities attributed to wealth, our results suggest that the left behind children of more affluent parents may be pushed into worse human capital outcomes; given the rapid development of China, it may be the case that the current cohort of left behind children is less likely to be enrolled in school than earlier cohorts.

What this paper shows

What it does not show

Context and definitions

Data, method, contribution

Data
China Health and Nutrition Survey, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2015 waves; rural households with children aged 18 or younger in 12 provinces: 4,502 children, 2,826 households, 175 communities, 14,298 child-year observations.
Method
Two-period parental decision model with human capital produced from time and resources; instrumental-variable regressions of timely enrollment on migration, house size and their interaction, split at the 148 m² threshold; IV regressions for the bus-to-school compensation channel; household-clustered standard errors.
What is new
A theoretical and empirical decomposition of parental migration’s effect on children by family wealth, reconciling conflicting findings in the left-behind-children literature.

Who this is for

Questions this paper answers

Does parental migration hurt left-behind children’s schooling?

It depends on family wealth. For poorer rural households the extra income from migration raises timely enrollment; for wealthier households the loss of parental time dominates and the effect turns negative. The crossover in this sample is at a house size of about 148 square meters.

How do migrant parents compensate for being away?

By spending more on schooling. Children of poorer migrant parents are about 18 percentage points more likely to travel to school by bus, which in these data goes with roughly 2,000 yuan more in annual education spending.

Related work this paper speaks to

Versions and links

Classification

JEL I25JEL J13JEL O15JEL R23

The published article does not print JEL codes; the codes here were added for this page.

wealth heterogeneityhuman capitalChinarural-urban migrationabsenteeismparental inputsleft-behind children

Also searched as hukou and children’s schooling, parental absence and education, remittances and child outcomes, and migrant parents in rural China.

Cite this

Guanyi Yang, Cynthia Bansak (2020). Does Wealth Matter? An Assessment of China’s Rural-Urban Migration on the Education of Left-Behind Children. China Economic Review, Vol. 59, 101365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2019.101365

@article{yang2020left,
  title={Does Wealth Matter? An Assessment of China’s Rural-Urban Migration on the Education of Left-Behind Children},
  author={Guanyi Yang and Cynthia Bansak},
  journal={China Economic Review},
  year={2020},
  note={Vol. 59, 101365},
  doi={10.1016/j.chieco.2019.101365}
}