Gender Differences in Income Returns to Education in Urban China
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Both gender & education are important determinants of social-economic status. Researches show that economic returns to human capital, which is mainly measured by education, have increased significantly in the People's Republic of China during its market transition. But no attempt has been made, to the author's knowledge, to find out whether the increase is the same for men & women. In this research, I will examine the interaction of gender & education in determining income status in urban China. The question I attempt to answer is whether or not income returns to additional years of schooling are the same for men & women; if not, how different they are; & what the mechanism is. Using the urban sample data of the China Economic, Population, Nutrition, & Health Survey (CHNS) collected in 1989 & 1997, I will use years of schooling, whether a bachelor's degree is achieved, working experience, & the square of working experience, to predict the individual yearly income (earnings, 1n of earnings, & cubic root of earning respectively) for men & women, respectively, in 1988 & 1996. My hypothesis is that with the development of a market economy, additional years of schooling help women more than men reach higher economic status, partly because the labor market is less competitive for women as a result of the gender differentiation of occupations, & partly because fewer women have advanced degrees.
CONF
Southern Sociological Society
Wu, Yingfeng
2002
137