The allocation of China’s higher education talent (2003–2013)

ABSTRACT

Using the job placement data of college graduates, we document the allocation of college-educated skilled labour in China during 2003 and 2013. We find that public sectors (governments and state-owned enterprises) enjoy a privileged position in absorbing the most talented in the labour market in contrast to the difficulties that domestic private enterprises suffer. The appeal of the public sectors does not come from the monetary salaries offered at the entry level.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• talent allocation
• labour market

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• I2
• J2
• J3

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Data source: National Bureau of Statistics of China.

² Studies on this subject are limited except for Zhang (2013).

³ The number of universities surveyed is the following: 45 in 2003, 34 in 2005, 28 in 2007, 37 in 2009, 30 in 2011 and 30 in 2013.

Additional information

Funding

Changjun Yue thanks Project 71473007 supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China for financial support. Jing Zhang thanks Project 71603265 supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China for financial support.