Computer technology in education: Evidence from a pooled study of computer assisted learning programs among rural students in China

There is a great degree of heterogeneity among the studies that investigate whether computer technologies improve education and how students benefit from them – if at all. The overall goal of this study is to assess the effectiveness of computing technologies to raise educational performance and non-cognitive outcomes and identify what program components are most effective in doing so. To achieve this aim we pool the data sets of five separate studies about computer technology programs that include observations of 16,856 students from 171 primary schools across three provinces in China. We find that overall computing technologies have positive and significant impacts on student academic achievement in both math and in Chinese. The programs are found to be more effective if they are implemented out-of-school, avoiding what appear to be substitution effects when programs are run during school. The programs also have heterogeneous effects by gender. Specifically, boys gain more than girls in Chinese. We did not find heterogeneous effects by student initial achievement levels. We also found that the programs that help students learn math—but not Chinese—have positive impacts on student self-efficacy.     

Income-dependent impacts of health insurance on medical expenditures: Theory and evidence from China

Policymakers are interested in the impact of health insurance on individuals’ medical expenditures—not only the average effect for the overall population, but also the possible heterogeneous effects for subgroups. This paper focuses on the heterogeneous impacts of a nationwide health insurance program in China, the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme, on its enrollees’ out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures for different income groups, since previous studies find no significant reduction in OOP for the general population. We firstly develop a theoretical model, showing that the reduction in OOP for the rich would be greater. Then, we test the theoretical prediction using a unique sample. The empirical finding is consistent with the model prediction, and the pattern of income-dependent impacts is robust to different estimation strategies.     

Parental Education and Child Health: Evidence from China*

This paper examines the effect of parental, household and community character‐istics on the health of children in China. We find that birth order, death of elder siblings, use of prenatal care and alcohol consumption by the mother when pregnant have statistically significant effects on the health of children. Although parental education does not have a significant direct effect on child health, it does affect mothers’ behavior during pregnancy and inflfluences the use of health inputs, indirectly impacting the health of children. The research findings have important implications for both family planning programs and broader social policies in China.     

The long-term effects of automatic grade promotion on child development

Grade retention is a common practice in many countries despite the fact that the evidence for its influence on child development is mixed. In 2006, China introduced a new rule that explicitly prohibited grade repetition during the compulsory education period. Exploiting the staggered introduction of this policy across provinces and applying a flexible difference-in-differences strategy, we analyze the causal effects of the reform on various student outcomes, including school completion and cognitive skills, mental health and self-confidence in early adulthood. The results indicate that automatic grade promotion hurts students' educational development, especially for boys and for children with less-educated mothers. On the other hand, however, the reform indeed improved mental health, as noted by the proponents of social promotion. More importantly, we find that all the policy impacts are concentrated solely among students exposed to the reform in an early grade, particularly 1st-3rd grade. The results further indicate that removing the “threat” of grade retention results in a decrease in study time in the long run, which we interpret as a potential mechanism.     

Parental income and child health in Japan

Previous studies have consistently found evidence of an income gradient in health among children in various countries, and studies in Anglo-Saxon countries have found that this gradient increases with child age. Using nationally representative individual-level data, I examine the association between child health and parental income in Japan. Japan has a child poverty rate that is similar to the rate of many countries that have been studied previously, but Japan outperforms those countries on most health indicators. I find that an income gradient exists in child health in Japan, but that it is limited to specific health measures and symptoms, and that it is weaker overall in that respect than the gradient found in other countries or among Japanese adults. Moreover, I find no evidence that the gradient increases with child age. The fact that children in low-income families have relatively modest and non-accumulating health disadvantages may contribute to the overall health of the Japanese population. Nevertheless, there is a statistically significant negative association between parental income and the incidences of asthma, hearing problems, and dental symptoms in children, implying that future efforts to improve the health of underprivileged children should focus on the prevention and control of these diseases.     

Causal effects of family income on educational investment and child outcomes: Evidence from a policy reform in Japan

The Child Allowance Policy (CAP) in Japan, a nationwide cash transfer program for families with children, was designed to increase household expenditures toward children. Using unforeseen changes in the CAP that occurred due to the electoral results as a source of exogenous variation in income in the early 2010s, this paper examines the causal impact of family income on households’ private educational expenditures and child outcomes in the short-run, based on a longitudinal parent-child survey. The ordinary least squares (OLS) and first-differenced (FD) results show that family income is in most cases positively correlated with child's cognitive outcomes, and, to a lesser extent, with families’ educational expenditure on their children. Based on the FD instrumental variable (FD-IV) estimation, using unexpected changes in CAP payments as an instrument, we find positive income effects on educational expenditure in the short-run. However, we did not find statistically significant impacts on children's cognitive outcomes.     

The impact of teacher credentials on student achievement in China

Teacher quality is an important factor in improving student achievement. As such, policymakers have constructed a number of different credentials to identify high quality teachers. Unfortunately, few of the credentials used in developing countries have been validated (in terms of whether teachers holding such credentials actually improve student achievement). In this study, we employ a student-fixed effects model to estimate the impact of teacher credentials on student achievement in the context of the biggest education system in the world: China. We find that having a teacher with the highest rank (a credential based on annual assessments by local administrators) has positive impacts on student achievement relative to having a teacher who has not achieved the highest rank. We further find that teacher rank has heterogeneous impacts, benefiting economically poor students more than non-poor students. However, whether a teacher attends college or holds teaching awards does not appear to provide additional information on teacher quality (in terms of improving student achievement).     

Solution or isolation: Is boarding school a good solution for left-behind children in rural China?

In recent decades, rural China has experienced a rapid increase in boarding school enrollment rates and in the population of left-behind children (LBC) (i.e., rural children whose parents migrate to urban areas for work). LBC tend to be worse off in numerous dimensions. At 61 million, China has the world's largest population of LBC. As it provides a different residential environment, boarding school can potentially exacerbate or mitigate the negative effects of parental migration. Using nationally representative data on Chinese families, we estimate the impact of parental migration and boarding school on child outcomes in cognition and physical and mental health. We find that while boarding school has no effect on LBC physical and mental health, it substantially improves performance on achievement tests for both LBC and non-LBC. Policies aimed at improving boarding school conditions in China, may improve not only cognitive outcomes, but also child physical and mental well-being.     

Early Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Health Care Access,Risky Health Behaviors,and Self-Assessed Health

The goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to achieve nearly universal health insurance coverage through a combination of mandates, subsidies, marketplaces, and Medicaid expansions, most of which took effect in 2014. We use data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to examine the impacts of the ACA on health care access, risky health behaviors, and self-assessed health after two years. We estimate difference-in-difference-in-differences models that exploit variation in treatment intensity from state participation in the Medicaid expansion and pre-ACA uninsured rates. Results suggest that the ACA led to sizeable improvements in access to health care in both Medicaid expansion and nonexpansion states, with the gains being larger in expansion states along some dimensions. However, we do not find clear effects on risky behaviors or self-assessed health.     

The quantity–quality trade-off related to investment in healthy human capital: New evidence from the implementation of the “selective two-child policy” in China

Using data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), and employing the “selective two-child policy” as a quasi-natural experiment, this study provides empirical evidence of Becker’s quantity-quality tradeoff theory. We find that the selective two-child policy reduced households’ investment in health insurance for their first-child. The proportion of participated families and the amount invested in health insurance declined significantly among families in which one spouse was an only child. The reduction in investment in health insurance was more substantial when the first-child was a girl and when the first-child was younger. One likely mechanism was the wage penalty for motherhood. The relaxed birth policy led to a significant reduction in women’s income. As a result, households’ financial resources became more limited, and their budgets became tighter, leading to reductions in investments in the health of first-child.     

The health of left-behind children in rural China

Child health is not only a key indicator of overall quality of public health, but also vital for the future economic development of a country. In recent years, with unprecedented urbanization of China, many children in rural areas have been left behind while their parents migrate to urban areas to seek employment opportunities. Thus, it is considerably important for us to understand the effects of lack of parental care on the health status of left-behind children. Using data from China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), we find that the left-behind children in rural areas are significantly 20.0% more likely to get sick or develop chronic conditions than those living with their parents. We also find that girls are more vulnerable than boys and younger children are more vulnerable than older children to lack of parental care.     

The effects of formal and informal child care on the Mother's labor supply—Evidence from urban China

The women's labor force participation rate in China has declined considerably during the last twenty years in urban China. Since the reforms started in the mid-1990s, publicly subsidized child care programs have decreased, and private care centers have increased. This might have increased the reliance of working mothers on informal child care and reduced their reliance on formal child care. Using post-reform data from the Project on Rural–Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) of 2008, I estimate the effects of formal and informal child care on the labor supply of mothers of young children. A recursive model with instrumental variables is employed to account for endogeneity. I find a positive and significant impact of informal child care in the form of grandchild care on the mother's labor force participation, while no significant effect of formal child care in the form of kindergartens or paid nannies. Considering recent tendencies in China to postpone retirement, one possible method to maintain mothers' presence in the labor market could be to reinforce the availability and affordability of formal child care.²³     

Taxation and the Environment–Health–Poverty Trap: A Policy Experiment Perspective

Under pressures related to economic growth and environmental protection, China is facing an increasingly severe “environment–health–poverty” trap risk. Fuel taxation is generally considered an effective policy to counter such a risk. Since 2009 China has raised the fuel tax rate many times to enhance tax reform. However, the effects of this policy remain unknown. Therefore, it is vitally important to estimate the impacts of China's current fuel taxation policy on environment, public health and the national economy. As the first attempt in existing literature on China, this paper builds a general equilibrium framework with the feedback effect of public health on economy. We find that that the fuel tax policy benefits the adjustment of the economic structure and improves human health; however, it is detrimental to economic growth, public welfare and price stability. In this sense, it plays a limited role in reducing the trap risk and might not be sustainable in the long term.     

Do selective high schools improve student achievement? Effects of exam schools in China

We use regression discontinuity design to examine the effect of a system of public exam high schools, which admit students solely by pre-existing achievement, on student college entrance exam scores in Beijing, China. More selective exam schools may have higher peer quality and sometimes are equipped with more experienced teachers and better facilities. We find, however, that elite exam high schools, which are the most selective, have no effects on student test scores. We find that on average the system of exam schools improves student performance on the exam, which indicates that students benefit from attending more selective non-elite schools. The results on qualifying for college admission are consistent with our findings about test scores. Differences among schools in peer achievement, student/teacher ratio and the percentage of certificated and experienced teachers partially explain our findings; self-choices of track and exam participation do not explain test scores or college admission.     

Impact of urban-rural health insurance integration on health care: Evidence from rural China

In recent years, Chinese local governments have experimented with integrating the social health insurance system segmented between rural and urban areas to unify the administration, policy, and funds of various health insurance programs. In this study, we take advantage of the staggered implementation of the urban-rural health insurance integration across cities over time to examine the impacts of the integration on rural residents' health care utilization and health outcomes. Based on an original city-year level policy dataset and the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) for the years 2011, 2013, and 2015, we find that the integration significantly increases the middle-aged and older rural residents' inpatient care utilization and this positive effect is particularly salient in poor areas. Moreover, we find that the positive policy effect of integration is attributed to enhanced health insurance benefits, such as a higher reimbursement rate for inpatient care. However, the integration has limited impacts on the middle-aged and older rural residents' health outcomes. This study reveals the partial success of urban-rural health insurance integration to reduce health care inequality in China.     

Fostering non-cognitive skills and academic performance: Experimental evidence from women’s-only colleges in Pakistan

We conduct a randomized control trial to investigate the effect of a soft-skills intervention that highlights the role of beliefs about perseverance on non-cognitive skills, effort, and academic performance of college students. We have a sample of 366 undergraduate students from women-only and public colleges in a major metropolitan city in Pakistan. We find that a brief discussion stressing perseverance and a constructive interpretation of failures led to increased level of grit among treated students one year after the intervention. However, we find no significant increase in hours of study and college attendance after one year or test scores two and nine months after the intervention. Our findings suggest that soft-touch interventions may impact non-cognitive skills, but they can be insufficient for improving academic achievement.     

The Impact of an Academic High School Tuition Relief Program on Students’ Matriculation into High Schools in Rural China

By 2010, only one-quarter of workers in China had received a high school (HS) education. One of the root causes of this low rate is that China has the highest HS tuition fees globally. Although the Chinese government has implemented a series of programs to reduce the cost of attending vocational HS, the cost of attending academic HS in China emains high. This study evaluates the extent to which an academic HS tuition relief program initiated by a poor county in western China affects students' schooling decisions after graduation from junior high school. By using a longitudinal dataset of 2348 students in two counties, we use ordinary least squares and propensity score matching to evaluate the impact of this program on four student outcomes: matriculation into academic HS, matriculation into vocational HS, entering the labor market, and retaking high school entrance exams. The results show that the program significantly increased matriculation into academic HS by 21 percentage points, while it reduced matriculation into vocational HS by 7 percentage points, the likelihood of entering the labor market by 11.9percentage points, and the likelihood of retaking exams by 2.1 percentage points. Further, we find that the effects of the program among middle-income students are stronger compared with those of other groups. And we found that the program had no significantly heterogeneous impact on students with different academic performance.     

Does New Rural Pension Scheme decrease elderly labor supply? Evidence from CHARLS

This paper examines the effect of the New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS) on the labor supply behavior of the elderly in rural China. Using pooled data from two waves of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS) and an analytical framework of combination of regression discontinuity design and difference in difference method (RD-DiD), we find no evidence that pension receipt from the NRPS program does significantly induce the elderly to withdraw from the labor market. The heterogeneous effects by health status indicate that pension recipient slightly decreases the probability of labor force participation for those individuals with chronic diseases; however, the effect is not statistically significant. The empirical findings suggest that the introduction of the NRPS program does not improve the welfare effect of the originally targeted elder individuals with illness.     

The distribution of financial aid in China: Is aid reaching poor students?

China's central government incrementally introduced various kinds of student financial aid since the late 1990s in response to public concerns about the rising burden of college prices. Despite the marked increase in financial assistance from governmental as well as non-governmental sources in recent years especially, little is known about how well aid is currently distributed across Chinese universities and whether it is successfully reaching needy students.We use a unique randomly-sampled dataset of all local senior college students in one northwest province and a combination of non-parametric, semi-parametric and fixed effects methods to examine how various types of financial aid are currently distributed to students of different backgrounds across the university system. We also evaluate whether aid is reaching the main target population of low-income students. We primarily find that government-financed aid is allocated evenly across universities of varying selectivity and is reaching its target population of low-income students within universities. By contrast, university- and society-financed aid is not reaching low-income students. In addition, students in the most selective universities receive large implicit subsidies as they have high instructional costs, get more aid, and pay low tuition fees. Finally, a significant proportion of disadvantaged students do not seem to receive any type of aid.     

Child labour and academic achievement: Evidence from Gansu Province in China

This paper considers the relationship between child labour and a child's academic achievement in rural China. Using a unique longitudinal, multi-level survey, the Gansu Survey of Children and Families (GSCF) which was enrolled in the Gansu province, I use a quasi-maximum likelihood estimation (QMLE) and find that more than 1 h of child labour in the previous time period has a negative effect on a child's academic achievement in the subsequent period after controlling for child talent. I also show that previous academic achievement has no strong significant effect on current child labour by applying a logistic model. Based on the data, the fact that those effects are not very big or not significant suggests that child labour in China is not a big problem when compared with other developing countries (Bacolod & Ranjan 2008).