Resource Utilization and Disparities in Compulsory Education in China

Abstract

Based on county-level data in 1997 and 1999, this study attempts to document resource utilization and disparities in compulsory education in China. It found that while the pattern of resource utilization was similar across different areas in the country, there were substantial disparities in the level of per-student spending across these areas. The spending gap was particularly substantial between urban and rural areas, and between coastal region and other regions. Although non-minority areas spent more than minority areas, the gap was relatively modest. Five measures of inequality were estimated and they showed a remarkable consistency in demonstrating a large degree of inequality in school spending at both primary and lowersecondary levels nationwide in 1999. Decomposition of the Theil indexes indicated that between two-thirds and three-quarters of financial inequality resided within provinces, and between onequarter to one third of the financial inequality existed between provinces. For the urban and rural groups, the decomposition also showed that the great majority of the inequality resided within these groups instead of between these two groups. Comparison of 1997 and 1999 results showed that nationwide, there was no significant change in the overall level of inequality in per-student total spending. However, in the same period, the spending gap increased between counties at the top-end and bottom-end of the spending distribution; per-student total spending increased much faster at the top end than at the bottom end. The spending gap also increased between urban and rural areas, and between coastal areas and the rest of the country. The implications of these findings for education policy were discussed. *Mun C. Tsang is Professor of Education Economics and Director of the Center on Chinese Education, Teachers College Columbia University; and Yanqing Ding is Lecturer of Education at Peking University and a Research Assistant at the Center on Chinese Education. An earlier draft of the paper was presented at the Association for Asian Studies Conference held in Washington, DC, in April 2002.