1. The Effect of Chinese
Lineage on China’s
Education Disparity
SPEAKER: FRED ZHAN
PEKING UNIVERSITY
JUNE/10/2014
Session C2: Schooling, Education and Work Presentation: 2

2. Ouline
1.Background
2.Motivation
3.Objective
4.Data and methodology
5.Results
6.Conclusions

3. 1.Background---what is a Chinese lineage
A Chinese lineage is a patrilineal and patrilocal group of related Chinese people with a common
surname sharing a common ancestor and, in many cases, an ancestral home
From the same ancestors
Usually has an ancestral memorial hall or a family tree book

4. 1.Background---what Chinese lineage
does
Building an ancestral memorial hall---to worship their ancestors
Organizing activities during festivals---dragon boating competition on Duanwu Festival
Publishing family tree book—recording every member that has been born into this family since
the first generation of the lineage sorted by the order of Chinese characters
Improving education among its children
◦ Building schools for children of the lineage
◦ Organizing gatherings for who do well in college entrance exams
◦ Printing the names of those doing in college entrance exams onto the wall of the ancestral shrines
◦ Offering scholarships or financial aids for those promising but poor children

5. 1.Background---the Chinese lineage of
Ding in Henan Province
An ancestral memorial hall Family tree book

6. 1.Background---the Chinese lineage of
Ding Village
Population: less than 2,000
Bachelor degree holders: 90
Master degree holders:20
Doctor degree holders: 23
Professors:18
First doctor degree holder in Henan Province
Some of the top professors and political leaders in China

7. 2. Motivations
Migrant Opportunity and the Educational Attainment of Youth in Rural China(John Giles and Alan
de Brauw, 2008)
◦ Test :the effect of the increasing opportunity brought by migrant networks on the enrollment decision
on the high school
◦ Conclusion: the effect is negative for migrant networks make the opportunity costs for attending a
school more expensive
Chinese lineage networks and the income distribution within villages(Guo Yunnan, Yao Yang,
Jeremy Foltz, 2014)
◦ Test: the effect of Chinese lineage on the income distribution among villages
◦ Conclusions: the income disparity is smaller where there is a Chinese lineage
◦ Rationale: the Chinese lineage lowers the migrant costs of the members. Meanwhile the people from
poorer families benefit more from the networks, thus narrowing the income gap with their peers.

8. 2. Motivations
The Chinese lineage networks and the migrant labor
◦ Test: the effect of Chinese lineages on the likelihood that a villager migrate to urban areas
◦ Conclusion: the Chinese lineage networks increases the likelihood a villager move to the urban area
◦ Rationale: the social networks increases the expected opportunity of finding a job and the migrating
costs

9. 3. Objectives
Investigate the effect of Chinese lineage’s effect on the education attainment

10. 4. Data and methodology
A. Model and hypothesis
◦ 1) 𝐻𝑡+1 = 𝐻𝑡 + 𝜑 𝑡 𝐺 𝑒𝑡
◦ 2)𝐾𝑡+1 = 𝐾𝑡 + 𝜃𝑡 𝐹 𝐾𝑡 + 𝐿 𝑡
𝑎1
, 𝐿 𝑡
𝑐1
+ 𝑤(𝐻𝑡
𝑎
, 𝑀𝑗𝑡)𝐿 𝑡
𝑎2
+ 𝑤 𝐻𝑡
𝑐
, 𝑀𝑗𝑡 𝐿 𝑡
𝑐2
− 𝑐𝑡 − 𝑃𝑡
𝑒
𝑒𝑡
◦ 3)𝐸0 𝑡=0
𝑇−1
𝛿 𝑡 𝑈 𝑐𝑡, 𝑙 𝑡
𝑎
, 𝑙 𝑡
𝑐
, 𝑒𝑡 + 𝜏(𝐾 𝑇, 𝐻 𝑇)
◦ 4) 𝐸_𝑡^∗=𝐸^∗ (𝜎_𝑡,𝜇_𝑡,𝜑_(𝑡 ),𝜃_𝑡 𝐹_(𝐿_𝑡^𝑐1 ) (𝑡),𝜃_𝑡 𝐹_(𝐿_𝑡^𝑎1 ) (𝑡),𝑤(𝐻_(𝑡 )^𝑎,𝑀_𝑗𝑡 ),𝑤(𝐻_𝑡^𝑐,𝑀_𝑗
𝑡 ),𝑃_𝑡^𝑒
◦ 5) 𝐸𝑡
∗
= 𝐸∗(𝜎𝑡, 𝜇 𝑡, 𝜑 𝑡, 𝜃𝑡, 𝑋ℎ𝑡, 𝑀𝑗𝑡, 𝑃𝑡
𝑒
)

11. 4. Data and methodology
B. Data
◦ 1) China Family Panel Survey 2010 (CFPS), conducted by Peking University
◦ Community observations: 635
◦ Family member observations: 57155
◦ Family observations: 14960
◦ Topics including: income, employment, education, medical services and health, child development, migration, housing, marriage
and family, etc.
◦ 2) the adults who were born after 1970

12. 4. Data and methodology
C.Hypothesis
◦ The existence on Chinese lineage will have positive impact on the education attainment for children in
rural area

13. 5.Results
Table 1 average education attainment by urban-rural divison
Average education
attainment by
region
Average(year) Standard deviations Observations
(person)
Urban 8.03 4.92 15,574
Rural 4.78 4.49 18,016
Overall 6.28 4.97 33590
Source: China Family Panel Survey (CFPS), by Peking University

14. 5.Results
Average education
attainment in a rural
community
observations mean
With a family tree book
Without a family tree book
4,237
13,632
5.18
4.65
Total 18,016 4.78
Resource: CFPS

15. 5.Results
Descriptive results
Average education
attainment in a rural
community
observations mean
With a family tree book
Without a family tree book
4,237
13,632
5.18
4.65
Total 18,016 4.78
Resource: CFPS
Average education
attainment in a urban
community
observations mean
With a family tree book
Without a family tree book
3,260
12,164
8.08
0.01
Total 15,574 8.02
Resource: CFPS

16. 5.Results
Figure1 the proportion of having a family tree book among families by region
Source: CFPS

17. 5. Results
Table1 determinants of education attainment conditional on having a family tree book
Model Born after
1970
(general)
Born after
1970 (rural)
Born after
1970 (urban)
Born before
1970 (rural)
Born before
1970 (urban)
Having a family
tree
book(1=yes)
0.22
(0.008)
0.31
(0.001)
0.04
(0.804)
0.16
(0.348)
-0.26
(0.484)
Year of birth 0.02
(0.007)
0.05
(0.000)
0.02
(0.133)
0.07
(0.000)
0.09
(0.000)
Father’s
education
attainment
0.38
(0.000)
0.34
(0.000)
0.33
(0.000)
0.26
(0.000)
0.17
(0.000)
The number of
siblings
-0.746
(0.000)
-0.57
(0.000)
-0.82
(0.000)
-0.17
(0.000)
-0.07
(0.427
The label of
class in Great
Cultural
Revolution
-0.019
(0.027)
0.01
(0.090)
-0.17
(0.05)
0.26
(0.410)
0.02
(0.075)
Gender(1=male) 0.403
(0.000)
0.63
(0.000)
0.01
(0.992)
2.08
(0.000)
0.29
(0.287)
Number of
observations
10,197 8063 2012 5045 548
Resource : CFPS

18. 6. Conclusions
The effect of having an ancestral hall will lower one’s education attainment in rural area
The effect of having a family tree book will increase one’s education attainment in rural area
The effect of having a family tree book is reported to be insignificant in urban area
Due attention should be paid to the informal local organizations in rural China in terms of
education

19. Thank you for listening