Rural-Urban Disparity in Translating Human Capital into Economic Reward: A Cross-Sectional Study of China

• In Event: 207 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 14. Labor Market Outcomes and Returns to Education

Abstract

The Education Based Meritocracy (EBM) ideology suggests that as long as one’s education attainment level is a pure reflection of his or her demonstrated capability, his or her social-economic status can be correspondently realized on the condition that his or her job market position is determined by the education attainment level. This ideology is accepted by Chinese government and it devotes considerable effort in promoting the higher education opportunities. However, due to the household registration system, there is a rural-urban disparity in terms of resources distribution. Given many rural born students who received their higher education in urban area, the household registration system still limits their opportunity to find a desirable occupation when competing with their urban counterparts. To understand what makes it more difficulty for rural born students to get an equally good job compared to the urban born students, I argue that the lack of social capital prevents rural born students to smoothly translate their human capital into economic success. In this study, I use 2008 Chinese General Social Survey to conduct a cross-sectional study. The result suggests that there is a penalty for being rural born students who have received higher education. Receiving helps during the job application process have will help the rural born students in a more significant way compared to their urban born counterparts.

Author

• Yangzi Zhao, University of Maryland-College Park