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Education and the Poverty Trap in Rural China

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  • John Knight
  • Li Shi
  • Deng Quheng

Abstract

This is an ambitious attempt to view the relationships involving education and income as forming a system, and one that can generate a poverty trap. The setting is rural China, and the data are from a national household survey for 2002, designed with research hypotheses in mind. Enrolment is high in rural China by comparison with most poor rural societies, but the quality of education varies greatly. There are three main strands to the paper. One examines the determinants of enrolment, and finds that poverty has an adverse effect on both the quality and quantity of education - so contributing to a poverty trap. The second examines the effects of education. It shows how and why the returns to education vary according to household and community income – so also contributing to a poverty trap. The third strand brings no fewer than 17 estimated relationships together as a system, and poses the question: can education break the vicious circle of poverty? The implications for poverty analysis and for educational policy are considered.

Suggested Citation

  • John Knight & Li Shi & Deng Quheng, 2008. "Education and the Poverty Trap in Rural China," CSAE Working Paper Series 2008-02, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    • Handle: RePEc:csa:wpaper:2008-02
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    17. Phillips, Joseph M, 1994. "Farmer Education and Farmer Efficiency: A Meta-Analysis," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(1), pages 149-165, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Horacio Villegas Q. & Jaime Vargas R. & David Perez O., 2016. "Impact of education on poverty in Bolivia," Economia Coyuntural,Revista de temas de perspectivas y coyuntura, Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas y Sociales 'Jose Ortiz Mercado' (IIES-JOM), Facultad de Ciencias Economicas, Administrativas y Financieras, Universidad Autonoma Gabriel Rene Moreno, vol. 1(4), pages 33-60.
    2. Caine Rolleston, 2010. "Educational access and poverty reduction: the case of Ghana 1991-2006," Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación volume 5, in: María Jesús Mancebón-Torrubia & Domingo P. Ximénez-de-Embún & José María Gómez-Sancho & Gregorio Gim (ed.), Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 5, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 32, pages 625-650, Asociación de Economía de la Educación.
    3. Chang, Huayi & Zhang, Junbiao & He, Ke & Zeng, Yangmei, 2020. "Impact of off-farm employment on household clean energy consumption in rural China: A gender perspective," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304259, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; school enrolment; quality of education; poverty; poverty trap; vicious circle; virtuous circle; cumulative causation; credit constraint; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

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