Time: May. 5 (Fri.), 13:30 -15:00 (Beijing Time)

Title: Peer Effects, Parental Migration and Children's Human Capital: A Spatial Equilibrium Analysis in China

Venue: Zhonghui Building 106

About the Speaker:

黄子彬，上海财经大学商学院助理教授，美国罗切斯特大学(University of Rochester)经济系博士，主要研究领域包括劳动经济学，教育经济学与城市经济学。黄子彬老师长期关注中国的城镇化、人口流动与流动家庭子女教育问题。

Abstract:

In China, domestic migrant children are often excluded from public schools due to policy restrictions. This induces some migrant workers to leave their children behind in their hometowns. While a policy aimed at relaxing this enrollment restriction can raise the quality of education received by migrant children, it faces strong resistance from parents and governments in migration destinations on the grounds of potential negative spillovers on local children and financial costs. In this study, I investigate this relaxation policy in two steps. First, I identify the peer effects from migrant and left-behind children on their classmates by leveraging the random assignment of children across classrooms within schools. I find that the negative spillovers from left-behind children are large, but those from migrant children are modest. Second, I construct a spatial equilibrium model accounting for these peer effects. In the counterfactual analysis, I find that relaxing the enrollment restriction encourages migration, promotes educational equality, and increases aggregate human capital. The gains of parents and children are large compared with the financial cost.