Estimating the Effects of Educational System Consolidation: The Case of China’s Rural School Closure Initiative

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dc.contributor.authorHannum, Emily
dc.contributor.authorLiu, Xiaoying
dc.contributor.authorWang, Fan
dc.date2023-05-18T02:42:05.000
dc.date.accessioned2023-05-22T18:57:58Z
dc.date.available2023-05-22T18:57:58Z
dc.date.issued2021-10-01
dc.date.submitted2022-03-31T11:53:20-07:00
dc.description.abstractGlobal trends of fertility decline, population aging, and rural outmigration are creating pressures to consolidate school systems, with the rationale that economies of scale will enable higher quality education to be delivered in an efficient manner, despite longer travel distances for students. Yet, few studies have considered the implications of system consolidation for educational access and inequality, outside of the context of developed countries. We estimate the impact of educational infrastructure consolidation on educational attainment using the case of China’s rural primary school closure policies in the early 2000s. We use data from a large household survey covering 728 villages in 7 provinces, and exploit variation in villages’ year of school closure and children’s ages at closure to identify the causal impact of school closure. For girls exposed to closure during their primary school ages, we find an average decrease of 0.60 years of schooling by 2011, when children’s mean age was 17 years old. Negative effects strengthen with time since closure. For boys, there is no corresponding significant effect. Different effects by gender may be related to greater sensitivity of girls’ enrollment to distance and greater responsiveness of boys’ enrollment to quality.
dc.description.commentsThis working paper was published in a journal: Hannum, Emily, Xiaoying Liu, and Fan Wang. 2021. "Estimating the Effects of Educational System Consolidation: The Case of China's Rural School Closure Initiative." Economic Development and Cultural Change 70(1):485-528. "https://doi.org/10.1086/711654
dc.description.sponsorshipWe gratefully acknowledge support from Penn’s University Research Foundation and School of Arts and Sciences Research Opportunity Grant Programs, support from Grand Challenges Canada (PI: Jere Behrman), and support from the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation (Scholar Grant GS040-A-18) for coverage of Wang’s time.
dc.identifier.urihttps://repository.upenn.edu/handle/20.500.14332/32980
dc.legacy.articleid1010
dc.legacy.fulltexturlhttps://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=education_inequality_workshop&unstamped=1
dc.source.issue11
dc.source.journalPenn Education and Inequality Working Papers
dc.source.statuspublished
dc.subject.otherChina
dc.subject.otherschool closure
dc.subject.othereducation infrastructure
dc.subject.otherrural education
dc.titleEstimating the Effects of Educational System Consolidation: The Case of China’s Rural School Closure Initiative
dc.typeWorking Paper
digcom.identifiereducation_inequality_workshop/11
digcom.identifier.contextkey28460968
digcom.identifier.submissionpatheducation_inequality_workshop/11
digcom.typeworkingpaper
dspace.entity.typePublication
person.identifier.orcid0000-0003-2011-9984
relation.isAuthorOfPublication5bdb5f0b-3f13-4c68-b487-614bde521a0d
relation.isAuthorOfPublicationad8607af-34db-40e5-be17-52d86126a51d
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relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery5bdb5f0b-3f13-4c68-b487-614bde521a0d
upenn.schoolDepartmentCenterPenn Education and Inequality Working Papers
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