Exploring the Impact of Interrupted Education on Earnings: The Educational Cost of the Chinese Cultural Revolution

44 Pages Posted: 23 Jan 2007

See all articles by Xin Meng

Xin Meng

Australian National University; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Robert Gregory

Australian National University (ANU) - Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Date Written: January 2007

Abstract

During the Chinese Cultural Revolution many schools stopped normal operation for a long time, senior high schools stopped student recruitment for up to 6 years, and universities stopped recruitment for an even longer period. Such large scale school interruptions significantly reduced the opportunity for a large cohort of individuals to obtain university degrees and senior high school qualifications. More than half of this cohort who would normally attain a university degree were unable to do so. We estimate that those who did not obtain a university degree, because of the Cultural Revolution, lost an average of more than 50 percent of potential earnings. Both genders suffered reduced attainment of senior high school certificates and more than 20 per cent prematurely stopped their education process at junior high school level. However, these education responses do not appear to have translated into lower earnings. In addition, at each level of education attainment most of the cohort experienced missed or interrupted schooling. We show, however, that given the education certificate attained, the impact on earnings of these missed years of schooling or lack of normal curricula was small.

Keywords: education, earnings, Cultural Revolution, China

JEL Classification: I21, J31

Suggested Citation

Meng, Xin and Gregory, Robert, Exploring the Impact of Interrupted Education on Earnings: The Educational Cost of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (January 2007). IZA Discussion Paper No. 2548, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=958710 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.958710

Xin Meng (Contact Author)

Australian National University ( email )

Research School of Economics
College of Business and Economics
Canberra ACT 0200
Australia
+61 26249 3102 (Phone)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Schaumburg-Lippe-Str. 7 / 9
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Robert Gregory

Australian National University (ANU) - Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS) ( email )

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200
Australia

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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