The effects of rural education on poverty in China: a spatial econometric perspective

Abstract

Poverty alleviation has attracted extensive attention worldwide. This paper investigated the spatial agglomeration effect and dynamics driving rural education levels (namely, primary education, junior secondary education, and senior secondary education) and rural poverty in 27 provinces of China in 2010-2017. The results of a spatial autoregressive (SAR) model revealed that different education levels have distinct effects on rural poverty, and the impact of compulsory education on rural poverty is greater than that of senior secondary education. We further found that rural poverty in a region is clearly not only internally driven but also impacted by the poverty rate in the surrounding provinces, suggesting that regional poverty alleviation policies should combine regional education differences and learn from poverty alleviation through education experience in surrounding areas. Thus, the findings established in this paper have significant implications for targeted poverty alleviation measures in China by improving education.

Keywords:

• Rural education
• poverty alleviation
• spatial autocorrelation
• spatial regression
• human capital
• China

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Notes

1 Rural education consists of primary education (6 years), regular junior secondary education (3 years) and regular senior secondary education (3 years).

2 Since Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai are developed regions with a high degree of urbanization and almost no poor people and the yearbook shows that the poverty rate is small or zero in these areas, the above three regions are excluded.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Forestry and Grassland Bureau Major Research Project (grant no. JYC2019-62) and the Central Public Research Institutes Fundamental Research Funds for the Project of Chinese Academy of Forestry (grant no. CAFYBB2021QC002).

Notes on contributors

Weilin Liu

Weilin Liu is a postdoctoral fellow at Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development, Beijing, China. She earned her PhD in Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China. Her research areas include agricultural economic theory and policy, rural poverty. E-mail: [email protected]

Jingdong Li

Jingdong Li is a postdoctoral researcher works at Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He earns his PhD in Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China. His research areas include agricultural economic theory, regional economics and international trade of agricultural products. E-mail: [email protected]

Rong Zhao

Rong Zhao is an Associate Professor at the Research Institute of Forestry Policy and Information, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China. She completed her PhD in China Agricultural University. Her research interests focus on forestry economic theory and policy, ecological poverty alleviation, forest products trade. E-mail: [email protected]