Inequality of opportunity and household education expenditures

Working Paper 2017-439

Abstract

This paper This paper offers the first empirical evidence on the impact of inequality of opportunity on household education investment by using the by using the by using the by using the by using the by using the panel data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in three in three in three in three waves (2010, 2012 and 2014). Our result suggests that inequality of opportunity has a negative effect on household education expenditures. This result is robust to robustness checks. Furthermore, the disadvantaged households (whose householders with less education, income, and rural hukou status) seem to be affected more by inequality of opportunity within the county they live in. Higher inequality of opportunity in the comparison group may reduce their incentives to investment more on education. Policy suggestions to reduce inequality of opportunity may include reducing labor market discrimination based on gender and hukou, balancing education resources to create more equal educational opportunities, and offering children education subsidies in low-income families.

Authors: Yang Song, Guangsu Zhou.