The Impact of Interrupted Education on Subsequent Educational Attainment: A Cost of the Chinese Cultural Revolution

2002/07/01 by Xin Meng, R. G. Gregory, Robert Gregory · 171 citations
Social Sciences · #China #Cultural revolution #Economic history #Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities #History #Industrialisation #Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies #Law #Political science #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1086/342761

published in Economic Development and Cultural Change 50(4), 935-959 (University of Chicago Press)

openalex publication_date 2002/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

One of the largest interruptions to the usual educational process occurred during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, when most schools in urban China ceased regular operation for 6 years. Universities stopped normal student recruitment for an even longer period of time. The 11 years of the Cultural Revolution, 1966-77, affected the formal education of a whole generation of young people. This article examines the extent to which individuals were able to overcome this interruption and proceed to acquire a university degree. It also explores the points at which interruption matters most in the educational process and examines the characteristics of those individuals who were most successful in overcoming the educational upheaval. The article is structured as follows: Section II provides the background. Section III presents the model specifications and describes the data. Section IV analyzes the empirical results. Conclusions are given in Section V.

Cited by

• The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Disruptions to Education, and the Returns to Schooling in Urban China
• Did send-down experience benefit youth? A reevaluation of the social consequences of forced urban–rural migration during China’s Cultural Revolution
• Gender Differences in Willingness to Compete: The Role of Culture and Institutions
• Chinese Immigrants in the U.S. Labor Market: Effects of Post-Tiananmen Immigration Policy
• Economic Reform, Education Expansion, and Earnings Inequality for Urban Males in China, 1988-2007
• COVID-19 Testing Strategies for K-12 Schools in California: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis. [europepmc]
• Exposure in utero to adverse events and health late-in-life: Evidence from China. [europepmc]

Related

• The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Disruptions to Education, and the Returns to Schooling in Urban China
• Massification of higher education: challenges for admissions and graduate employment in China
• The Broken Promise of Human Capital Theory: Social Embeddedness, Graduate Entrepreneurs and Youth Employment in China
• Arrival of Young Talent: The Send-Down Movement and Rural Education in China
• Expanding the Middle-Income Group Through Education: Preliminary Evidence From China