Effects of High School Closure on Education and Labor Market Outcomes in Rural China

This paper examines the effects of a nationwide destruction of rural high schools immediately after the Cultural Revolution in China on education and labor market outcomes. Combining unique data on the county-level timing of school closures with the 1990 census microdata, I first document a sharp decline of 35% in high school completion in the first cohort exposed to the closures. I then find that the school closures led to negative labor market performances a decade later: affected individuals were 10% less likely to work off-farm and 29% less likely to work in a white-collar job.