The Education of Migrant Children in China's Urban Public Elementary Schools: Evidence from Shanghai

China Economic Review

Yuanyuan Chen, Shuaizhang Feng

Abstract:

The education of migrant children critically determines the level of human capital of China's future labor force. The majority of migrant children in Chinese cities now study in public schools. This paper uses self-collected data in Shanghai in 2010 and 2012 to evaluate the performance of migrant students in public elementary schools. We find that across schools, migrant students with better family background enter into schools with higher quality. Within the same schools, migrant students perform as well as their local counterparts, in both cognitive and non-cognitive dimensions. Our results suggest that there is no evidence of within-school discrimination against migrant students within public schools, and the key to improving their education is access to better schools.

Keywords: Public elementary schools; Sorting; Cognitive and non-cognitive skills; Within-school discrimination

JEL classification: I28; J15; O15

Read more: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2019.02.002