Changes in economic returns to higher education in urban China, 2003–2017

Sammanfattning: The thesis investigates whether the higher education expansion policy, issued in 1999, China, improved individuals’ schooling and wages. The thesis mainly applies Mincer functions. Empirical results show that higher education policy increased schooling years, but it does not change the economic returns to higher education dramatically. Heterogeneous return was evident in the region, type of work units, gender, and parents’ education. Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) is applied as a robust test. The results also show that the expansion policy positively impacts education years and wages, although estimates are not always significant.