Volume 54 - Article 20 | Pages 591–644
Return migration and educational investments in children in China: Hukou differences and the role of parental coresidence
References
Austin, P.C. and Stuart, E.A. (2015). Moving towards best practice when using Inverse Probability of Treatment Weighting (IPTW) using the propensity score to estimate causal treatment effects in observational studies. Statistics in Medicine 34(28): 3661–3679.
Brand, J., Moore, R., Song, X., and Xie, Y. (2019). Why does parental divorce lower children’s educational attainment? A causal mediation analysis. Sociological Science 6: 264–292.
Breen, R., Karlson, K.B., and Holm, A. (2021). A note on a reformulation of the KHB method. Sociological Methods and Research 50(2): 901–912.
Carling, J. and Pettersen, S.V. (2014). Return migration intentions in the integration – transnationalism matrix. International Migration 52(6): 13–30.
Chan, K.W. (2010). The household registration system and migrant labor in China: Notes on a debate. Population and Development Review 36(2): 357–364.
Chan, K.W. (2021). What the 2020 Chinese census tells us about progress in hukou reform. ChinaBrief 21(15).
Chan, K.W. and Wei, Y. (2019). Two systems in one country: The origin, functions, and mechanisms of the rural-urban dual system in China. Eurasian Geography and Economics 60(4): 422–454.
Chen, C. and Fan, C.C. (2016). China’s hukou puzzle: Why don’t rural migrants want urban hukou. The China Review 16(3): 9–39.
Chen, Y. and Feng, S. (2013). Access to public schools and the education of migrant children in China. China Economic Review 26: 75–88.
Chen, Y., Salagean, I., and Zou, B. (2024). Private educational expenditure inequality between migrant and urban households in China’s cities. Economies 12(10): 277.
Chen, Y., Zou, Y., and Song, Y. (2024). Barriers to high school entrance exam and children of migrants being left behind (in Chinese. China Economic Quarterly 24(1): 119–135.
Chesnaye, N.C., Stel, V.S., Tripepi, G., Dekker, F.W., Fu, E.L, Zoccali, C., and Jager, K.J. (2022). An introduction to inverse probability of treatment weighting in observational research. Clinical Kidney Journal 15(1): 14–20.
Chi, W. and Qian, X. (2016). Human capital investment in children: An empirical study of household child education expenditure in China, 2007 and 2011. China Economic Review 37: 52–65.
Coffman, D.L., Zhou, H., Castellano, K.E., Schuler, M.S., and McCaffrey, D.F. (2024). Sampling weighting strategies in causal mediation analysis. BMC Medical Research Methodology 24(1): 133.
Conley, D. and Glauber, R. (2006). Parental educational investment and children’s academic risk: Estimates of the impact of sibship size and birth order from exogenous variation in fertility. Journal of Human Resources XLI(4): 722–737.
Dong, Y. and Goodburn, C. (2020). Residence permits and points systems: New forms of educational and social stratification in urban China. Journal of Contemporary China 29(125): 647–666.
Fan, C.C. and Li, T. (2020). Split households, family migration and urban settlement: Findings from China’s 2015 National Floating Population Survey. Social Inclusion 8(1): 252–263.
Funk, M.J., Westreich, D., Wiesen, C., Stürmer, T., Brookhart, M.A., and Davidian, M. (2011). Doubly robust estimation of causal effects. American Journal of Epidemiology 173(7): 761–767.
Gao, X. and Li, M. (2022). Differences between returns to education in urban and rural china and its evolution from 1989 to 2019. PLOS ONE 17(10): 0274506.
Gautham, L. and Folbre, N. (2024). Parental expenditures of time and money on children in the U.S. Review of Income and Wealth 70(4): 1011–1036.
Giles, J. and Huang, Y. (2020). Migration and human capital accumulation in China. IZA World of Labor 476.
Gong, Y., Xue, H., and Chen, T. (2025). Income inequality and shadow education in China: From the perspective of social stratification. China Economic Review 92: 102426.
Goodburn, C. (2009). Learning from migrant education: A case study of the schooling of rural migrant children in Beijing. International Journal of Educational Development 29(5): 495–504.
Granger, E., Sergeant, J.C., and Lunt, M. (2019). Avoiding pitfalls when combining multiple imputation and propensity scores. Statistics in Medicine 38(26): 5120–5132.
Guo, J. and Qu, X. (2022). Competition in household human capital investments: Strength, motivations and consequences. Journal of Development Economics 158: 102937.
Guo, Y., Chen, Q., Zhai, S., and Pei, C. (2020). Does private tutoring improve student learning in China? Evidence from the China Education Panel Survey. Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies 7(3): 322–343.
Hao, L. (2022). Impact of relaxing the hukou constraints on return migration intentions: Evidence from China. Population Research and Policy Review 41(2): 583–607.
He, X., Wang, H., Friesen, D., Shi, Y., Chang, F., and Liu, H. (2022). Cognitive ability and academic performance among left-behind children: Evidence from rural China. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 52(7): 1033–1049.
Holdaway, J. (2018). Educating the children of migrants in China and the United States: A common challenge? China Population and Development Studies 2(1): 108–128.
Hu, F. (2013). Does migration benefit the schooling of children left behind? Evidence from rural northwest China. Demographic Research 29(2): 33–70.
Hu, F. (2012). Migration, remittances, and children’s high school attendance: The case of rural China. International Journal of Educational Development 32(3): 401–411.
Huang, Y., Dang, H.A., and Selod, H. (2016). Children left behind in China: The role of school fees. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Huang, Y., Liang, Z., Song, Q., and Tao, R. (2020). Family arrangements and children’s education among migrants: A case study of China. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 44(3): 484–504.
Huang, Y., Song, Q., Tao, R., and Liang, Z. (2018). Migration, family arrangement, and children’s health in China. Child Development 89(2).
Huangfu, Y. (2024). Return migration of rural-urban migrant children in China. Population Research and Policy Review 43(3): 41.
Ketkar, S.L. and Cho, W. (1982). Demographic factors and the pattern of household expenditures in the United States. Atlantic Economic Journal 10(3): 16–27.
Kohler, U., Karlson, K.B., and Holm, A. (2011). Comparing coefficients of nested nonlinear probability models. The Stata Journal: Promoting Communications on Statistics and Stata 11(3): 420–38.
Koo, A., Ming, H., and Tsang, B. (2014). The doubly disadvantaged: How return migrant students fail to access and deploy capitals for academic success in rural schools. Sociology 48(4): 795–811.
Lai, F., Liu, C., Luo, R., Zhang, L., Ma, X., Bai, Y., Sharbono, B., and Rozelle, S. (2014). The education of China’s migrant children: The missing link in China’s education system. International Journal of Educational Development 37: 68–77.
Lee, J. (2008). Sibling size and investment in children’s education: An Asian instrument. Journal of Population Economics 21(4): 855–875.
Lenis, D., Nguyen, T.Q., Dong, N., and Stuart, E.A. (2019). It’s all about balance: Propensity score matching in the context of complex survey data. Biostatistics 20(1): 147–163.
Li, B. and Chen, J. (2024). Equity in policy: An updated account of points systems for hukou conversion in Chinese megacities. Journal of Asian Public Policy 17(1): 106–122.
Li, F., Morgan, K.L., and Zaslavsky, A.M. (2018). Balancing covariates via propensity score weighting. Journal of the American Statistical Association 113(521): 390–400.
Li, J., Gu, Y., and Zhang, C. (2015). Hukou – based stratification in urban China’s segmented economy. Chinese Sociological Review 47(2): 154–176.
Li, Q. and Liang, Z. (2024). Heterogeneous effects of return migration on children’s mental health and cognitive outcomes. Social Science Research 122: 103041.
Li, Q. and Liang, Z. (2019). The return decision making of the second generation migrants. Population Research 43(3): 65–77.
Li, X. and Shen, C. (2020). Doubly robust estimation of causal effect: Upping the odds of getting the right answers. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes 13(1): 006065.
Li, X. and Zhang, L. (2023). Educational opportunity and children’s migration: Evidence from China’s Gaokao reform for children of migrant families. Journal of Comparative Economics 51(4): 1162–1185.
Li, Z. and Qiu, Z. (2018). How does family background affect children’s educational achievement? Evidence from contemporary China. The Journal of Chinese Sociology 5(1).
Liang, Z. (2016). China’s great migration and the prospects of a more integrated society. Annual Review of Sociology 42(1): 451–471.
Liang, Z. and Sun, F. (2020). The lasting impact of parental migration on children’s education and health outcomes: The case of China. Demographic Research 43(9): 217–244.
Lin, P., Pan, Y., Wang, Y., and Hu, L. (2024). Reshaping unfairness perceptions: Evidence from China’s hukou reform. China Economic Review 83: 102081.
Lin, X. (2019). Purchasing hope’: The consumption of children’s education in urban China. The Journal of Chinese Sociology 6(1): 8.
Ling, M. (2017). Returning to no home: Educational remigration and displacement in rural China. Anthropological Quarterly 90(3): 715–742.
Liu, H., Chang, F., Corn, H., Zhang, Y., and Shi, Y. (2021). The Impact of Parental Migration on Non-Cognitive Abilities of Left behind Children in Northwestern China. Journal of Asian Economics 72: 101261.
Liu, T., Feng, H., and Brandon, E. (2018). Would you like to leave Beijing, Shanghai, or Shenzhen? An empirical analysis of migration effect in China. PLOS ONE 13(8): e0202030.
Liu, Z., Yu, L., and Zheng, X. (2018). No longer left-behind: The impact of return migrant parents on children’s performance. China Economic Review 49: 184–196.
Liu, Z. and Zhu, F. (2011). China’s returned migrant children: Experiences of separation and adaptation. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 12(5): 445–461.
Lu, W., Zhou, S., and Wei, Y. (2022). Government policies and unintended consequences: Rising demand for private supplementary tutoring in China. International Journal of Educational Development 94: 102653.
Lu, Y., Yeung, J.W.J., Liu, J., and Treiman, D.J. (2019). Migration and children’s psychosocial development in China: When and why migration matters. Social Science Research 77: 130–47.
Lu, Y., Zhang, R., and Du, H. (2021). Family structure, family instability, and child psychological well‐being in the context of migration: Evidence from sequence analysis in China. Child Development 92(4).
Lu, Z. and Pang, X. (2022). The impact of parental migration on offspring’s education investment: Evidence from left-behind children in China. Sustainability 14(10): 6257.
Ma, C. and Wang, D. (2025). The educational inequality faced by Chinese rural migrant children in an urban public school. International Journal of Educational Development 114: 103268.
Ma, G. (2020). Migrant status, school segregation, and students’ academic achievement in urban China. Chinese Sociological Review 52(3): 319–336.
Mauldin, T., Mimura, Y., and Mark Lino, M. (2001). Parental expenditures on children’s education. Journal of Family and Economic Issues 22(3): 221–241.
Meng, X. and Yamauchi, C. (2017). Children of migrants: The cumulative impact of parental migration on children’s education and health outcomes in China. Demography 54(5): 1677–1714.
NBS of China, UNICEF, and UNFPA, (2023). The population status of children in China in 2020: Facts and data.
Qian, H. and Walker, A. (2015). The education of migrant children in Shanghai: The battle for equity. International Journal of Educational Development 44: 74–81.
Ridgeway, G., Kovalchik, S.A., Griffin, B.A., and Kabeto, M.U. (2015). Propensity score analysis with survey weighted data. Journal of Causal Inference 3(2): 237–249.
Sicular, T., Ximing, Y., Gustafsson, B., and Shi, L. (2007). The urban–rural income gap and inequality in China. Review of Income and Wealth 53(1): 93–126.
Sohn, H. and Bacong, A.M. (2021). Selection, experience, and disadvantage: Examining sources of health inequalities among naturalized US citizens. SSM-Population Health 15.
Song, Q. and Smith, J.P. (2021). The citizenship advantage in psychological well-being: An examination of the hukou system in China. Demography 58(1): 165–189.
Song, Y. (2014). What should economists know about the current Chinese hukou system? China Economic Review 29: 200–212.
Song, Y. and Zhou, G. (2019). Inequality of opportunity and household education expenditures: Evidence from panel data in China. China Economic Review 55: 85–98.
Sun, L., Shafiq, M.N., McClure, M., and Guo, S. (2020). Are there educational and psychological benefits from private supplementary tutoring in mainland China? Evidence from the China Education Panel Survey, 2013–15. International Journal of Educational Development 72: 102144.
Wan, Y. and Vickers, E. (2022). Towards meritocratic apartheid? Points systems and migrant access to China’s urban public schools. The China Quarterly 249: 210–238.
Wang, C. (2018). Local governance in China: Realizing the citizens’ rights of migrants. China Population and Development Studies 2(1): 11–31.
Wang, C. and Ye, Q. (2014). Evolution on the Multi-Dimensional Poverty of Chinese Rural Migrant Workers: Based on the Dimension of Income and Education. Economic Research Journal 49(12): 159–174.
Wang, H. and Cheng, Z. (2022). Kids eat free: School feeding and family spending on education. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 193: 196–212.
Wang, H., Cheng, Z., and Smyth, R. (2022). Parental misbeliefs and household investment in children’s education. Economics of Education Review 89: 102284.
Wang, H.H., Huang, S., Zhang, L., Rozelle, S., and Yan, Y. (2010). A comparison of rural and urban healthcare consumption and health insurance. China Agricultural Economic Review 2(2): 212–227.
Wang, S., Yu, X., Wei, Z., and Liang, C. (2025). When education policy drives migration: The impact of reform allowing migrants to take the local ‘Gaokao’ on children’s migration. Journal of Asian Economics 100: 101995.
Wang, W., Hao, L., and Zhang, X. (2015). China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) baseline data user manual.
Wang, W.W. and Fan, C.C. (2006). Success or failure: Selectivity and reasons of return migration in Sichuan and Anhui, China. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 38(5): 939–958.
Wang, X. (2020). Permits, points, and permanent household registration: Recalibrating hukou policy under ‘top-level design. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 49(3): 269–290.
Wang, Y., Peng, C., and Cai, S. (2023). Does parents’ cognitive ability affect household educational investment? Evidence from Chinese families with left behind children. PLOS ONE 18(6): 0286987.
Wei, Y. (2024). Household expenditure on education in China: Key findings from the China Institute for Educational Finance Research-Household Surveys (CIEFR-HS. ECNU Review of Education 7(3): 738–761.
Wen, F. and Witteveen, D. (2021). Does perceived social mobility shape attitudes toward government and family educational investment? Social Science Research 98: 102579.
Whyte, M.K. (ed.) (2010). One country, two societies: Rural-Urban inequality in contemporary China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center.
Wiswall, M. and Zafar, B. (2021). Human capital investments and expectations about career and family. Journal of Political Economy 129(5): 1361–1424.
Woods, A.D., Gerasimova, D., Van Dusen, B., Nissen, J., Bainter, S., Uzdavines, A., Davis‐Kean, P.E., Halvorson, M., King, K.M., Logan, J.A.R., Xu, M., Vasilev, M.R., Clay, J.M., Moreau, D., Joyal‐Desmarais, K., Cruz, R.A., Brown, D.M.Y., Schmidt, K., and Elsherif, M.M. (2024). Best practices for addressing missing data through multiple imputation. Infant and Child Development 33(1): e2407.
Wu, Q. and Wallace, M. (2021). Hukou stratification, class structure, and earnings in transitional China. Chinese Sociological Review 53(3): 223–253.
Wu, X. and Treiman, D.J. (2007). Inequality and equality under Chinese socialism: The hukou system and intergenerational occupational mobility. American Journal of Sociology 113(2): 415–445.
Wu, X. and Treiman, D.J. (2004). The household registration system and social stratification in China: 1955–1996. Demography 41(2): 363–384.
Xiang, L. and Stillwell, J. (2023). Rural–urban educational inequalities and their spatial variations in China. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy 16(2): 873–896.
Xiong, Y. (2015). The broken ladder: Why education provides no upward mobility for migrant children in China. The China Quarterly 221: 161–184.
Xu, D. and Wu, X. (2022). Separate and unequal: Hukou , school segregation, and educational inequality in urban China. Chinese Sociological Review 54(5): 433–457.
Xu, J., Chen, Z., and Wu, J. (2022). Return of migrant workers, educational investment in children and intergenerational mobility in China. Economic Analysis and Policy 76: 997–1009.
Yang, G. and Bansak, C. (2020). Does wealth matter? An assessment of China’s rural-urban migration on the education of left-behind children. China Economic Review 59: 101365.
Yi, J., Heckman, J.J., Zhang, J., and Conti, G. (2015). Early health shocks, intra-household resource allocation and child outcomes. The Economic Journal 125(588): 347–371.
Zhang, B. (2012). Moving-back children: New problem in the education of migrant rural workers children – improving moving-back children’s study adaptation [in Chinese. Educational Research 33(2): 74–78.
Zhang, H., Behrman, J.R., Fan, C.S., Wei, X., and Zhang, J. (2014). Does parental absence reduce cognitive achievements? Evidence from rural China. Journal of Development Economics 111: 181–195.
Zhang, H. and Glick, J.E. (2024). Internal migration: Understanding parent–child differences in educational expectations. Population Research and Policy Review 43(2).
Zhang, J., Huang, J., Wang, J., and Guo, L. (2020). Return migration and hukou registration constraints in Chinese cities. China Economic Review 63: 101498.
Zhang, W. and Bray, M. (2018). Equalising schooling, unequalising private supplementary tutoring: Access and tracking through shadow education in China. Oxford Review of Education 44(2): 221–238.
Zhang, Y. and Xie, Y. (2016). Family background, private tutoring, and children’s educational performance in contemporary China. Chinese Sociological Review 48(1): 64–82.
Zhang, Y. and Zheng, X. (2022). Internal migration and child health: An Investigation of health disparities between migrant children and left-behind children in China. PLOS ONE 17(3): 0265407.
Zhang, Z. and Treiman, D.J. (2013). Social origins, hukou conversion, and the wellbeing of urban residents in contemporary China. Social Science Research 42(1): 71–89.
Zhao, G., Wang, M., Xu, J., Lu, J., Akezhuoli, H., and Wang, F. (2022). Health status and association with interpersonal relationships among Chinese children from urban migrant to rural left-behind. Frontiers in Public Health 10: 862219.
Zheng, X., Zhang, Y., and Jiang, W. (2023). Migrating with parents or left-behind: Associations of internal migration with cognitive and noncognitive outcomes among Chinese children. Current Psychology 42(22): 19208–19229.
Zheng, X. and Zhou, Y. (2024). Are migrants a threat? Migrant children and human capital investments among local households in urban China. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 11(1): 672.
Zhou, J. and Hui, E.C.‐ M. (2022). The Hukou system and selective internal migration in China. Papers in Regional Science 101(2): 461–483.
Zhou, M., Murphy, R., and Tao, R. (2014). Effects of parents’ migration on the education of children left behind in rural China. Population and Development Review 40(2): 273–292.
Zhou, S. and Cheung, M. (2017). Hukou system effects on migrant children’s education in China: Learning from past disparities. International Social Work 60(6): 1327–1342.
Zhu, Y. and Österle, A. (2017). Rural-urban disparities in unmet long-term care needs in China: The role of the hukou status. Social Science and Medicine 191: 30–37.