Family Gives Up on You: The Online-to-Offline Food Delivery and Children’s Educational Expenditures in Rural China

The gig economy in China has surged over the past decade, creating over ten million low entry barrier and high flexibility employment opportunities, redefining the relationship between formal education and employment opportunities, which may affect household education investment decisions. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this paper examines the effect of the online-to-offline (O2O) food delivery on children’s educational expenditures in rural China. We find a significant negative correlation between the development of the O2O food delivery and rural children’s educational expenditures, especially for in-school expenditures and male children. Meanwhile, we find that educational expenditures of rural middle school children, children with poor academic performance, and children from low-asset families are more susceptible to the development of O2O food delivery. Furthermore, we examine the potential channels underlying the relationship and find that the negative relationship between the O2O food delivery and rural children’s educational expenditures is primarily driven by the rise in opportunity costs. Finally, we find that government support for rural education could mitigate the negative effect of the O2O food delivery on rural children’s educational expenditures.