Impact of rural-urban migration on children's academic performance in China

Abstract

Left-behind children and rural-urban migrant children have become two large vulnerable groups in China. What is the well-being status of them? In this paper, I tested their academic performance by utilizing the data from CFPS. After solving endogeneity issue with instrumental variables, I obtained empirical results suggesting that urban-urban children’ academic performance do not improve after migration, while left-behind children suffer from low academic performance due to the separation from their parents. This study highlights the significant difference between rural and urban education quality, and implies the importance of parenting in children’s education. It also provides policy recommendations to Chinese government to deal with this issue.