Children, families and schooling in rural China
Microeconometric studies of how household structure shapes children’s education in rural China: parental migration under the hukou system, family wealth, and spillovers between siblings.
- Sibling Spillovers in Rural China: A Story of Sisters
In rural China, each year a younger sibling spends in school raises the elder sibling’s Chinese test score by 1.42 percentage points, and by 2.26 points when the younger sibling is a girl; there is no significant effect when the younger sibling is a boy. The channel appears to be a more academic home environment rather than more parental spending or attention. - Does Wealth Matter? An Assessment of China’s Rural-Urban Migration on the Education of Left-Behind Children
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.