Market-oriented reforms and human capital reallocation in urban China: A gender perspective
研究了1990-2010年中国市场化改革如何通过废除工作分配制度和扩大高等教育，减少人力资本错配，尤其关注性别差异，发现改革使2010年19%的年轻人改变了职业选择，否则人力资本和产出将分别下降1.6%和0.8%。
Until the early 1990s, jobs were assigned by the government in urban China, and education opportunities were limited. Under these constraints, talented people, especially women, may not have been educated or assigned to occupations that suited their abilities best, resulting in a misallocation of human capital. Over the years, market-oriented reforms, such as abolishing the job assignment system and expanding college education, have changed people’s occupational and educational choices significantly. This paper investigates the macroeconomic consequences of market-oriented reforms between 1990 and 2010. I build a quantitative model of occupational and educational choice with wedges to measure the degrees of misallocation. I find that market-oriented reforms have significantly reduced misallocations. Without any market-oriented reforms, 19% of young people in 2010 would have chosen different occupations. Consequently, the human capital of the young cohort would have been 1.6% lower, and economic output would have been 0.8% lower.