Rural-Urban Educational Inequality in Contemporary China

Xiaogang Wu, University of Michigan

Under the hukou system all Chinese households were categorized as either agricultural or non-agricultural - or as rural or urban - households. Rural and urban residents enjoyed different entitlements, including access to educational opportunities. This paper examines the effect of the Chinese household registration status on rural-urban inequalities in educational attainment. With the data from the survey of Life Histories and Social Change in Contemporary China (1996), I employ endogenous switching regression methods to disentangle the effect of hukou from the effect of other factors. I found clear evidence of the causal effect of hukou status on educational inequality. Those of rural hukou status at age 14 receive significantly lower education than do those of urban hukou status at age 14, net of residential location and family origin. The difference can be attributed to the state, which uses education as a tool to legitimatize the rural-urban social divide.