How divergent were returns to education investments in China?
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Asian Social Science
Publication Date
1-1-2012
Volume
8
Issue
1
First Page
67
Last Page
72
Keywords
China, Costs of schooling, Divergence, Returns to education, Wage increment
Abstract
This paper uses the wage increment approach to measure the social and private returns to educational investments in China at various educational levels and how they change over time. The social returns to the investments in higher education were found to be increasing over time whilst the returns to the secondary level were declining over time. This indicates that China should raise its annual investment in higher education vis-à-vis secondary schools. We also found that the private returns to undergraduate level were substantially smaller than those to secondary level. This may lead to under-enrollment in undergraduate education. The above divergences or imbalances, if not rectified, could give rise to increasing scale of skilled labor shortages at the time when the economy boomed.
DOI
10.5539/ass.v8n1p67
Print ISSN
19112017
E-ISSN
19112025
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2012 Canadian Center of Science and Education
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Voon, J. P., & Voon, J. C. (2012). How divergent were returns to education investments in China? Asian Social Science, 8(1), 67-72. doi: 10.5539/ass.v8n1p67