Tuition Fees for Higher Education and Intergenerational Mobility in China

• 作 者: Yuanyuan Chen Quanlin Liu Kun Wu
• 机 构: Institute for Advanced Research, and Key Laboratory of Mathematical Economics of Ministry of Educati
• 出 处: 中国经济学前沿
• 发表日期: 2020年3期
• 关键词: tuition fees of higher education intergenerational educational mobility reform o

This paper studies the impact of an increase in higher education tuition on intergenerational mobility in China.We develop a theoretical model for the parental decision about the investment on education of children to illustrate the impact from the perspective of borrowing constraint.We consider the Chinese college tuition and subsidy reform around 1986 as a quasi-natural experiment for identifying the policy effect of the reform on intergenerational educational mobility.by using the data from the census of 2000 and the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS).We find that an increase in the education burden induced by the reform of college tuition has reduced intergenerational educational mobility,and it is more noticeable in regions with a relatively higher increment in the tuition fee.Our results are robust with consideration of the co-residence bias,government investment in elementary education,and the higher education expansion.