Social mobility, higher education, family background, and rural Household: Which really matters to individual’s career development in China

• In Event: Poster session III
  In Poster Session: Poster session 3

Proposal

After more than 30 years of reform and open-door policy, the Chinese new social structure based on occupation has been formed. This study analyses the influence of higher education, parents’ occupations, rural household and other factors on individuals’ career and the associated socioeconomic status. The two research questions are: Which matters more to an individual’s career development? Has the impact of higher education changed in the last 30 years? With data from Chinese General Social Survey in 2010-2013, this study constructs the traditional Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) samples, and James Heckman’s correction samples to establish Propensity Score Matching (PSM) models. The study found that both a college degree and parents’ occupations are both significant to career development, but a college degree has a larger impact. The second finding is that the impact of a college degree is diminishing over the last 30 years and a rural resident has only less than one tenth of chance of receiving a college degree compared with a city resident.

Authors

• Yongmei Hu, Beijing Normal University

• Jianzhong Zhou, California State University--Sacramento

• Yun Xing, Northwest Normal University