The Long-term Consequences of Ordeals: Evidence from the Chinese Sent-down Movement

Authors

  • Shuhong Peng School of Public Finance and Public Administration, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Jiangxi, China

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/jesr.v4i4.3618

Abstract

The Chinese sent-down movement between the mid 1950s to the late 1970s is a suffering period for Chinese sent-down youths. Using the treatment effect model and the ordered probit model, we examine the impact of sent-down experience on sent-down youths’ income and happiness based on the sample of CGSS2003 and CGSS2006. By doing so, we can explore the long-term consequences of one’s suffering experience. The overall sample regression results show that sent-down experience increase 42% of individuals’ income, while reducing 13% of individuals’ happiness. Sub-sample analysis results are robust to the conclusion that the sent-down experience makes a positive impact on income and a negative impact on happiness. This study provides objective evidence for the historical evaluation of sentdown movement, a new interpretation for the Easterlin paradox from the view of personality latitude, new empirical evidence for supporting the new human capital theory, and useful inspiration for the the current grass-roots employment policy for university graduates in China.

Keywords:

Sent-down movement; Ordeals; Sent-down youth; Income; Happiness

References

[1] Liu, X. M., The History of Chinese Educated Youth: Tide, Contemporary China Publishing House. 2009.

[2] Pan, M. X., A Historical Assessment of the “UP to the Mountains, Down to the Villages” Movement, Sociological Research, 2005, 5: 154-181.

[3] Jin, D. L. and G. Y., Jin, The Research Collection of Chinese Educated Youths’ Sent-Down Movement, Shanghai Social Sciences Press, 2009.

[4] Gu, H. Z., The History of Chinese Educated Youths’ Sent-Down Movement, People’s Daily Press, 2009.

[5] Jin, G. Y. and D. L., Jin, The Study on Educated Young People Going and Working in the Countryside from the Documents of Local Chronicles, Contemporary China History Studies, 2015, 22(3): 112-122.

[6] Zhou, X. G. and L. R. Hou, Children of the Cultural Revolution: The State and the Life Course in the People’s Republic of China, American Sociological Review, 1999, 64(1): 12-36. DOI: 10.2307/2657275.

[7] Xie, Y., Y. Jiang and E. Greenman, Did Send-down Experience Benefit Youth? A Reevaluation of the Social Consequence of Forced Urban-rural Migration during China’s Cultural Revolution, Social Science, 2008,37(2): 686-700. DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2007.08.002.

[8] Yang, J. and S. Li, The Impact of Rustication on Sent-down Cohorts’ Income, Frontiers of Economics in China, 2011, 6(2): 290-310. DOI: 10.1007/s11459-011-0133-5.

[9] Chen, Y., Z. Y Fan, X. M Gu and L. A Zhou, Arrival of Young Talent: The Send-Down Movement and Rural Education in China, American Economic Review, 2020, 110 (11): 3393-3430. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20191414.

[10] Song, S. G. and L. Zheng, The Impact of the Sent-Down Movement on Chinese Women’s Age at First Marriage, Demographic Research, 2016, 34(28): 797-826.

[11] Liang, P. H. and J. L. Li, No Regrets Youth? The Long-term Impact of the Sent-Down Experience on Social Trust, World Economic Papers, 2014, 2: 90- 109.

[12] de Grip, A., Bosma, H., Willems, D. and van Boxtel, M., Job-Worker Mismatch and Cognitive Decline, Oxford Economic Papers, 2008, 60: 237-253. DOI: 10.1093/oep/gpm023.

[13] Baert, S., B. Cockx and D. Verhaest, Overeducation at the Start of the Career: Stepping Stone or Trap? Labour Economics, 2013, 25: 123-140. DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2013.04.013.

[14] Nyhus, E. K. and Pons, E., The Effects of Personality on Earnings, Journal of Economic Psychology, 2005, 26(3): 363-384. DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2004.07.001.

[15] Almlund, M., A. L. Duckworth, J. J. Heckman, and T. Kautz. Personality Psychology and Economics. In E. A. Hanushek, S. Machin, and L. Woessmann (Eds.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, 2011, Vol. 4, Chapter 1, 1-181, Elsevier B.V.

[16] Heckman, J. J., R. Pinto and P. A. Savelyev, Understanding the Mechanisms through Which an Influential Early Childhood Program Boosted Adult Outcomes. The American Economic Review, 2013, 103(6): 2052-2086. DOI: 10.1257/aer.103.6.2052.

[17] Li, X. M. and X. Q., Zeng, The New Human Capital Theory, Economic Perspectives, 2012, 11: 120-126.

[18] Easterlin, R. A., Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence. New York: Academic Press, 1974, pp:89-125.

[19] Easterlin, R. A., Will Raising the Incomes of All Increase the Happiness of All? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 1995, 27(1): 35-48. DOI: 10.1016/0167-2681(95)00003-B.

[20] Easterlin, R. A., Happiness and Economic Growth: the Evidence, in Glatzer, W. et al.(eds): Global Handbook of Quality of Life: Exploration of Well-Being of Nations and Continents, 2015, pp: 283-299.

[21] Clark, A.E., P. Frijters and M.A. Shields, Relative Income, Happiness and Utility: An Explanation for the Easterlin Paradox and Other Puzzles, Journal of Economic Literature, 2008, 46(1): 95-144. DOI: 10.1257/jel.46.1.95.

[22] Zhang, Z. M. and W. L. Mai, Historical Investigation and Reflection on the Sent-Down Movement, Journal of Henan Normal University, 1998, 25(5): 40-44.

[23] Maddala, G. S., Limited-Dependent and Qualitative Variables in Econometrics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Downloads

Issue

Vol. 4 , Iss. 4 (October 2021)

Article Type

Articles

License

Copyright and Licensing

The authors shall retain the copyright of their work but allow the Publisher to publish, copy, distribute, and convey the work.

Journal of Economic Science Research publishes accepted manuscripts under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). Authors who submit their papers for publication by Journal of Economic Science Research agree to have the CC BY-NC 4.0 license applied to their work, and that anyone is allowed to reuse the article or part of it free of charge for non-commercial use. As long as you follow the license terms and original source is properly cited, anyone may copy, redistribute the material in any medium or format, remix, transform, and build upon the material.

License Policy for Reuse of Third-Party Materials

If a manuscript submitted to the journal contains the materials which are held in copyright by a third-party, authors are responsible for obtaining permissions from the copyright holder to reuse or republish any previously published figures, illustrations, charts, tables, photographs, and text excerpts, etc. When submitting a manuscript, official written proof of permission must be provided and clearly stated in the cover letter.
The editorial office of the journal has the right to reject/retract articles that reuse third-party materials without permission.

Journal Policies on Data Sharing

We encourage authors to share articles published in our journal to other data platforms, but only if it is noted that it has been published in this journal.