【主题】Helping Your Children Soar: Does Public Education Provision Affect Private Expenditure on Children?
【报告人】吕漪清 (助理教授, 上海纽约大学)
【时间】4月23日（星期二） 15：30-17：00
【地点】经济学院楼701
【语言】英文
【摘要/Abstract】This paper studies how parental investment in children responds to changes in public education provision. Using transactions made via China UnionPay debit and credit cards, we identify two types of expenditure on children: extra-curriculum training and other child support. We exploit a quasi-experimental shock on public education provision – a merger between two districts with substantially different educational resources in Shanghai. The merger allows students to apply for schools across the two districts. Using a difference-in-differences estimation, we find that, compared to a third control district, cardholders in the district where fewer top-tier high schools were located spent more on children after the merger. The effect is stronger for cardholders who have children of pre-high-school age and for those who live closer to the old border, but disappears for those who have adult children. Last, we rule out alternative channels via increased competition and housing appreciation. Overall, our findings suggest that parents invest more in children once the opportunity to obtain high-quality public education is improved. Thus, equal allocation of public educational resources could encourage private parental investment in children.
