Education and intergenerational income mobility in urban China

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between education and intergenerational income mobility in urban China based on the data of Chinese Urban Household Education and Employment Survey (CHUHEES)—2004” by Institute of Economics of Education of Peking University. It analyzes the characteristics of the intergenerational income mobility of Chinese urban household through such indices as intergenerational income inheritance and mobility, and intergenerational income elasticity, exploring the role of education to promote intergenerational income mobility through pathanalysis and binary logistic regression. It also analyzes the changing tendency along with the progress of the market reform in China and tries to provide theoretical explanations for the empirical results. According to the findings, there is rather obvious intergenerational income transmission in urban China, and most children still resort in the same income group with their fathers. As a kind of important mechanism of intergenerational mobility, education is instrumental to promote children of disadvantage group to upgrade of their economic status, showing its strong functions to promote intergenerational upward mobility. With the improvement of the level of marketization together with appropriate social policy, the role of education to promote the intergenerational income mobility and social equity is getting stronger.