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Returns to Schooling in Urban China, 2001-2010: Evidence from Three Waves of the China Urban Labor Survey

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  • Wenshu Gao
  • Russell Smyth

Abstract

This study provides estimates of the returns to schooling in urban China for migrants and non-migrants using three waves of the China Urban Labor Survey (CULS), corresponding to 2001, 2005 and 2010. We find that the returns to schooling increased about 2-3 per cent between 2001 and 2010. The two-stage least squares (TSLS) estimates, using spouse’s education as an instrumental variable, are slightly higher than the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates, although TSLS estimates using an internal instrument constructed from the heteroskedasticity in the data are similar to the OLS estimates. We find that returns to schooling are higher for non-migrants than migrants and higher for males than females over the decade.

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  • Wenshu Gao & Russell Smyth, 2012. "Returns to Schooling in Urban China, 2001-2010: Evidence from Three Waves of the China Urban Labor Survey," Monash Economics Working Papers 50-12, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:mos:moswps:2012-50
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    1. Wenshu Gao & Russell Smyth, 2015. "Education expansion and returns to schooling in urban China, 2001–2010: evidence from three waves of the China Urban Labor Survey," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 178-201, April.
    2. Gustafsson, Björn & LI, Shi & Sato, Hiroshi, 2014. "Data for studying earnings, the distribution of household income and poverty in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 419-431.
    3. Faqin Lin & Can Huang & Xiaobo He & Chao Zhang, 2013. "Do more highly educated entrepreneurs matter?," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 27(2), pages 104-116, November.
    4. Yamamura, Eiji & Smyth, Russell & Zhang, Yan, 2015. "Decomposing the effect of height on income in China: The role of market and political channels," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 62-74.

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