Proliferation of educational credentials,changing economic returns,and rising occupational education requirements: Evidence in urban China from 2003 to 2008

Abstract

A remarkable expansion of secondary and tertiary education has been witnessed in mainland China in the past decades, resulting in changing returns to educational credentials. Using data from the 2003 and 2008 Chinese General Social Survey, this article examines (1) the changing returns to secondary and tertiary credentials in urban China from 2003 and 2008; and (2) the changing education requirements of employers across the same period. This research highlights a significant decline in economic returns to college credentials, but no significant changes in the economic returns to secondary educational credentials are detected. The percentage of job positions requiring secondary education on the labor market is stagnant while there is a significant increase in the job positions which require tertiary education credentials. This research highlights the potential effects of employers’ responses to educational expansion on the returns to educational credentials.