Is Political Capital Important for Socioeconomic Attainment? Evidence from China Three Decades after the Market Transition

• In Event: 4367 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: 11. Sociology of Education

Abstract

Previous studies within the market transition debate find evidence both consistent and inconsistent with the predictions of Nee’s market transition theory: evidence of both increasing return to human capital and persistent return to political capital after the market transition in China. The inconsistency between the findings and the theory can be reconciled by the changing selection mechanism of party members of the Chinese Communist Party, which increasingly emphasizes the human capital of candidates. This study explores the extent to which education and cognitive skill, representing different aspects of the human capital embedded in the selection mechanism of party members, account for the contribution of party membership to income and housing space in China and the relative effects of the two human capital measures. Key findings include: 1. Both education and cognitive skill to a large extent account for the contribution of party membership to income and housing space. The effects of both human capital measures are stronger in rural areas than in urban areas. 2. Education in general has larger effect, but cognitive skill has larger effect on accounting for party membership’s contribution to rural income. 3. Controlling for marketization level considerably lessens the degree to which both human capital measures account for the contribution of party membership. These findings provide support for the market transition theory with data three decades after the transition and help to illuminate the effect of cognitive skill on the socioeconomic attainments of Chinese adults.

Author

• Xia Zheng, University of Chicago