scholarly journals Labor Market Returns to Education and English Language Skills in the People's Republic of China: An Update

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Niaz Asadullah ◽  
Saizi Xiao
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
English Language ◽  
Returns To Education ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Market Returns ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Labor Market Returns ◽  
English Language Skills

scholarly journals Labor Market Returns to Education and English Language Skills in the People's Republic of China: An Update

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Niaz Asadullah ◽  
Saizi Xiao
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
English Language ◽  
Returns To Education ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
English Language Skills

We reexamine the economic returns to education in the People's Republic of China (PRC) using data from the Chinese General Social Survey 2010. We find that the conventional ordinary least squares estimate of wage returns to schooling is 7.8%, while the instrumental variable estimate is 20.9%. The gains from schooling rise sharply with higher levels of education. The estimated returns are 12.2% in urban provinces and 10.7% in coastal provinces, higher than in rural and inland areas. In addition, the wage premium for workers with good English skills (speaking and listening) is 30%. These results are robust to controls for height, body mass index, and English language skills, and to corrections for sample selection bias. Our findings, together with a critical review of existing studies, confirm the growing significance of human capital as a determinant of labor market performance in postreform PRC.

scholarly journals Human Capital and Urbanization in the People’s Republic of China

2019 ◽  
pp. 475-513
Author(s):  
Chunbing Xing
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Returns To Education ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
Urban Migration ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Capital Development

This chapter explores the relationship between human capital development and urbanization in the People’s Republic of China, highlighting the Hukou system and decentralized fiscal system. Educated workers disproportionately reside in urban areas and in large cities, and the returns to education are higher in urban areas relative to those in rural areas, and in large, educated cities relative to small, less educated cities. In addition, the external returns to education in urban areas are at least comparable to the magnitude of private returns. Rural areas are the major reservoir for urban population growth, and the more educated have a higher chance of moving to cities and obtaining urban Hukou. As for health, rural–urban migration is selective in that healthy rural residents choose to migrate. However, occupational choices and living conditions are detrimental to migrants’ health. While migration has a positive effect on migrant children, its effect on ‘left-behind’ children is unclear.

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