Cognitive Ability: Social Correlates and Consequences in Contemporary China

Abstract:

In this paper, we describe the measurement of cognitive ability in the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), especially for verbal and mathematical skills, memory, and quantitative reasoning. The available CFPS cognitive measurements can be useful for studies on the importance of cognitive ability in many substantive domains of interest. Using the CFPS data, we show that measures of cognitive ability are clearly related to key demographic and social characteristics, such as age, gender, education, and hukou status. We also illustrate how cognitive ability influences school performance and deviant behaviors among children, income and political capital among adults, and daily functioning among the elderly.

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Notes on contributors

Guoying Huang

Guoying Huang is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and currently a research assistant at the Center of Social Research, Peking University. Her research interests include gender inequality in income, cognitive return in labor market, and the cognitive selection effect of Communist Party members.

Yu Xie

Yu Xie is Bert G. Kerstetter ’66 University Professor of Sociology and PIIRS at Princeton University and visiting chair professor of Peking University. His main areas of interest include social stratification, demography, statistical methods, Chinese studies, and sociology of science. His recently published works include: Marriage and Cohabitation with Arland Thornton and William Axinn (University of Chicago Press 2007), Statistical Methods for Categorical Data Analysis with Daniel Powers (Emerald 2008, second edition), and Is American Science in Decline? with Alexandra Killewald (Harvard University Press, 2012).

Hongwei Xu

Hongwei Xu is a research assistant professor at the Survey Research Center of the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. His main areas of interest include population health, child development, and spatial analysis.