Prof. Chengfang Liu and collaborators publish in APER

Release date：2024/04/09　　Source： CCAP

Recently, the international academic journal Asia Pacific Education Review (APER) published online the research paper "Long-Term Impacts of Early Childhood Education on Off-farm Employment: Evidence from Rural China" by Prof. Liu Chengfang, Associate Dean of the College of Modern Agriculture of Peking University and Deputy Director of the China Center for Agricultural Policy Research, and his co-authors. Long-Term Impacts of Early Childhood Education on Off-farm Employment: Evidence from Rural China".

This study explores the long-term impact of preschool experience on labor market performance from the perspective of nonfarm employment. Based on the database of the China Rural Development Survey (CRDS) conducted by the research team over the years in 100 villages and 2,000 households in five provinces, the authors use the household fixed-effects model and instrumental variables approach to examine the impact of preschool experience (including kindergarten, preschool, kindergarten, or preschool) on the rural labor force's initial entry into the labor force market at the time of nonfarm employment status. The study finds that individuals with preschool experience have a 6-8 percentage point higher probability of engaging in nonfarm employment at the time of initial employment relative to individuals without preschool experience. Focusing further on individuals engaged in non-farm employment at first employment, individuals with preschool experience are not only more likely to be engaged in non-farm employment only rather than part-time employment, but also more likely to be engaged in non-farm employment outside the city; however, in terms of type of employment, preschool experience does not have a significant effect on whether or not an individual is engaged in own-account business. The results of the mechanism analysis show that preschool experience promotes non-farm employment of rural laborers mainly by improving the educational status of individuals. The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the above effects of preschool education experience are more obvious for females and individuals whose parents are less educated.

Yuhu Guo, assistant researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Information, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), was the first author of the article, with Prof. Chengfang Liu as the corresponding author, and her doctoral student Ya-Lin Tang and Associate Researcher Yun-Li Bai at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGSR), as co-authors. This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under the Key Program of International Cooperation and the "Jieqing" Program.

Link to the paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12564-024-09950-9

Cite the article:

Guo, Yuhe, Yalin Tang, Yunli Bai, Chengfang Liu ^*. Long-term Impacts of Early Childhood Education on Off-farm Employment: Evidence from Rural China. Asia Pacific Education Review, 2024. doi:10.1007/s12564-024-09950-9.