IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/deveco/v74y2004i1p137-162.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Education and allocative efficiency: household income growth during rural reforms in China

Author

Listed:
  • Tao Yang, Dennis

Abstract

This paper studies the contribution of schooling to rural income growth during a period of factor market liberalization in China between 1986-1995. The relaxation of controls on labor mobility permitted farm households to reallocate productive inputs from agriculture to nonagricultural activities. It is hypothesized that education facilitates this adjustment. Panel data from the Sichuan province suggest that schooling enhanced the ability of farmers to devote more labor and capital to nonfarm production, given the evidence that less than optimum levels of these inputs were allocated to nonagricultural uses. During the transition period, the expansion of rural industries accounted for 42 percent of total income growth.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Tao Yang, Dennis, 2004. "Education and allocative efficiency: household income growth during rural reforms in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 137-162, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:74:y:2004:i:1:p:137-162
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304-3878(03)00183-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fan, Shenggan & Pardey, Philip G., 1997. "Research, productivity, and output growth in Chinese agriculture," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 115-137, June.
    2. Orazem, Peter F & Vodopivec, Milan, 1995. "Winners and Losers in Transition: Returns to Education, Experience, and Gender in Slovenia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 9(2), pages 201-230, May.
    3. Dennis Tao Yang, 1997. "Education in Production: Measuring Labor Quality and Management," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 79(3), pages 764-772.
    4. Yao, Yang, 1999. "Rural industry and labor market integration in eastern China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 463-496, August.
    5. J. Edward Taylor & Antonio Yunez-Naude, 2000. "The Returns from Schooling in a Diversified Rural Economy," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 82(2), pages 287-297.
    6. Yang, Dennis Tao & An, Mark Yuying, 2002. "Human capital, entrepreneurship, and farm household earnings," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 65-88, June.
    7. D. Gale Johnson, 2000. "Agricultural Adjustment in China: Problems and Prospects," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 26(2), pages 319-334, June.
    8. McMillan, John & Whalley, John & Zhu, Lijing, 1989. "The Impact of China's Economic Reforms on Agricultural Productivity Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 781-807, August.
    9. Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott, 1996. "Technological change: Rediscovering the engine of productivity growth in China's rural economy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 337-369, May.
    10. Chen, Shaohua & Ravallion, Martin, 1996. "Data in transition: Assessing rural living standards in Southern China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 23-56.
    11. Welch, F, 1970. "Education in Production," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(1), pages 35-59, Jan.-Feb..
    12. Foster, Andrew D & Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1996. "Technical Change and Human-Capital Returns and Investments: Evidence from the Green Revolution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 931-953, September.
    13. Li, Tianyou & Zhang, Junsen, 1998. "Returns to education under collective and household farming in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 307-335, August.
    14. Yaohui Zhao, 1997. "Labor Migration and Returns to Rural Education in China," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 79(4), pages 1278-1287.
    15. Pitt, Mark M & Sumodiningrat, Gunawan, 1991. "Risk, Schooling and the Choice of Seed Technology in Developing Countries: A Meta-Profit Function Approach," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 32(2), pages 457-473, May.
    16. Strauss, John & Thomas, Duncan, 1995. "Human resources: Empirical modeling of household and family decisions," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 1883-2023, Elsevier.
    17. Schultz, Theodore W, 1975. "The Value of the Ability to Deal with Disequilibria," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 827-846, September.
    18. Lin, Justin Yifu, 1992. "Rural Reforms and Agricultural Growth in China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(1), pages 34-51, March.
    19. Schultz, T. Paul, 1988. "Education investments and returns," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Hollis Chenery & T.N. Srinivasan (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 13, pages 543-630, Elsevier.
    20. Putterman, Louis, 1993. "Continuity and Change in China's Rural Development: Collective and Reform Eras in Perspective," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195078725.
    21. Basu, Kaushik & Narayan, Ambar & Ravallion, Martin, 2001. "Is literacy shared within households? Theory and evidence for Bangladesh," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(6), pages 649-665, December.
    22. Fleisher, Belton M & Dong, Keyong & Liu, Yunhua, 1996. "Education, Enterprise Organization, and Productivity in the Chinese Paper Industry," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(3), pages 571-587, April.
    23. Wallace E. Huffman, 1977. "Allocative Efficiency: The Role of Human Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 91(1), pages 59-79.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang, Dennis Tao & An, Mark Yuying, 2002. "Human capital, entrepreneurship, and farm household earnings," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 65-88, June.
    2. Li, Tianyou & Zhang, Junsen, 1998. "Returns to education under collective and household farming in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 307-335, August.
    3. Laszlo, Sonia, 2008. "Education, Labor Supply, and Market Development in Rural Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2421-2439, November.
    4. Dwayne Benjamin & Loren Brandt & Paul Glewwe & Guo Li, 2002. "Markets, Human Capital and Inequality: Evidence from Rural China," International Economic Association Series, in: Richard B. Freeman (ed.), Inequality Around the World, chapter 5, pages 87-127, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Yang, Dennis Tao, 2005. "Determinants of schooling returns during transition: Evidence from Chinese cities," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 244-264, June.
    6. Giles, John, 2006. "Is life more risky in the open? Household risk-coping and the opening of China's labor markets," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 25-60, October.
    7. Satriawan, Elan & Swinton, Scott M., 2005. "Does Human Capital Raise Farm or Non-farm Earning More? New Insight from Rural Pakistan Panel Survey," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19207, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    8. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2859-2939 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Jolliffe, Dean, 2004. "The impact of education in rural Ghana: examining household labor allocation and returns on and off the farm," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 287-314, February.
    10. Alejandro Ramirez & Gustav Ranis, 1997. "Economic Growth and Human Development," Working Papers 787, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    11. Zhang, Yumei & Diao, Xinshen, 2020. "The changing role of agriculture with economic structural change – The case of China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    12. Cao, Kang Hua & Birchenall, Javier A., 2013. "Agricultural productivity, structural change, and economic growth in post-reform China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 165-180.
    13. Joshua Eisenman, 2018. "Commune Kabuki: Development and Productivity Growth under Maoist China's Rural Collectives," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(6), pages 1553-1579, November.
    14. Gustav Ranis & Frances Stewart, 2000. "Strategies for Success in Human Development," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 49-69.
    15. Weersink, Alfons & Rozelle, Scott, 1997. "Marketing reforms, market development and agricultural production in China," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 17(2-3), pages 95-114, December.
    16. Foster, Andrew D & Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1996. "Technical Change and Human-Capital Returns and Investments: Evidence from the Green Revolution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 931-953, September.
    17. Fleisher, Belton M. & Wang, Xiaojun, 2004. "Skill differentials, return to schooling, and market segmentation in a transition economy: the case of Mainland China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 315-328, February.
    18. Meng, Erika C.H. & Smale, Melinda & Rozelle, Scott & Ruifa, Hu & Huang, Jikun, 1999. "The Cost Of Wheat Diversity In China," 1999 Annual meeting, August 8-11, Nashville, TN 21580, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    19. Behrman, Jere R., 2010. "Investment in Education Inputs and Incentives," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4883-4975, Elsevier.
    20. Phanhpakit ONPHANHDALA, 2009. "Farmer Education and Agricultural Efficiency: Evidence from Lao PDR," GSICS Working Paper Series 20, Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University.
    21. Maxwell Mkondiwa, 2023. "Is wealth found in the soil or in the brain? Investing in farm people in Malawi," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 134-157, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:74:y:2004:i:1:p:137-162. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/devec .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.