American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Arrival of Young Talent: The Send-Down Movement and Rural Education in China
American Economic Review
vol. 110,
no. 11, November 2020
(pp. 3393–3430)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
This paper estimates the effects on rural education of the send-down movement during the Cultural Revolution, when about 16 million urban youth were mandated to resettle in the countryside. Using a county-level dataset compiled from local gazetteers and population censuses, we show that greater exposure to the sent-down youths significantly increased rural children's educational achievement. This positive effect diminished after the urban youth left the countryside in the late 1970s but never disappeared. Rural children who interacted with the sent-down youths were also more likely to pursue more-skilled occupations, marry later, and have smaller families than those who did not.Citation
Chen, Yi, Ziying Fan, Xiaomin Gu, and Li-An Zhou. 2020. "Arrival of Young Talent: The Send-Down Movement and Rural Education in China." American Economic Review, 110 (11): 3393–3430. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20191414Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- I21 Analysis of Education
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- N35 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Asia including Middle East
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
- P36 Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics; Health; Education and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty
- R23 Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics