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Local education expenditures and educational inequality in China

Lookup NU author(s): Professor John Sessions

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Abstract

© 2023 The University of Manchester and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.We investigate the relationship between education funding and educational inequality across Chinese prefectures. The decentralisation of education in China has created substantial variations in government educational expenditures, both over time and across regions. We propose that these variations relate to the budget preferences of local governors. These are age dependent with younger officials more inclined to invest in large and quantifiable infrastructure projects rather than public service provision. This provides a source of exogenous variation in local fiscal efforts to provide public education and thus permits quasi-experimental evaluation through instrumental variable identification. Our results suggest that increased education spending is linked with lower educational inequality. Moreover, we find strong evidence of heterogeneity - the magnitude of the effect is diminishing with the degree of local fiscal autonomy.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Fan J, Huang J, Sessions JG, Ye J

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Manchester School

Year: 2023

Volume: 91

Issue: 4

Pages: 283-305

Print publication date: 01/07/2023

Online publication date: 04/04/2023

Acceptance date: 28/02/2023

ISSN (print): 1463-6786

ISSN (electronic): 1467-9957

Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc

URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/manc.12435

DOI: 10.1111/manc.12435


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