Parental education and wages: Evidence from China

This paper investigates the relationship between parents’ education and children’s wage using two nationally representative data sets in China. Controlling for other things, both father’s and mother’s education are positively correlated with children’s wage. Nevertheless, returns to father’s education are lower in more market-oriented segments of the economy, including coastal regions, the non-state sector, and the later period of the reform era (post-1992), while the opposite is true for mother’s education. We argue that this new empirical evidence is consistent with the story that father’s education mainly indicates family connections useful for locating a better-paying first job, while mother’s education primarily captures unmeasured ability.