Income and Geographic Segregation Across Colleges in China

• In Event: Analyses of International Education Policy Issues

Abstract

Higher education is a key driver of social mobility, especially for low-income students. We study segregation in the Chinese college admission system, where the distribution of seats depends on centralized exams and location quotas. Our data cover the universe of college-admitted students in 2005--2011. We find the admission rates to general college education are similar across all income groups. While low-income students are disadvantaged in going to a handful of top universities, this disadvantage nearly disappears when elite colleges are more generally defined (top 100 schools admitting less than 8% of students). The location-based quota system does not mitigate the income segregation much. While low-income provinces obtain more admission quota on aggregate, low-income students do not benefit from that.

Authors

• Mingyu Chen, Princeton University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ernest Liu, Princeton University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yinshan Shang, Princeton University
  Presenting Author