Heterogeneity in the economic returns to schooling among Chinese rural-urban migrants, 2002-2007

This paper analyzes the returns to schooling among Chinese rural migrants using data from the 2002 and 2007 China Household Income Project. [The author’s] nonparametric estimates show substantial dispersion and heterogeneity in the schooling rates of return among migrant workers. While the returns to schooling for the overall sample have increased over time, this result is mainly driven by the substantial increase in female migrants’ schooling coefficients. The schooling rates of return are also found to increase with migrant workers’ education levels. [The] birth cohort analysis shows that the patterns of the evolution of schooling returns during 2002-2007 are still present even after considering the effects of changes in migrants’ age structure and in unobserved ability distribution during 2002-2007.

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