What Determines Employment Opportunity for College Graduates in China after Higher Education Reform?

by Tao Li, Juyan Zhang

ARTICLE | China Economic Review | Vol. 21, 2010

Abstract

Using the 2005 placement data from two separate colleges, this paper studies graduate job allocation in China after higher education reform. Other things being equal, graduates with better college GPA were more likely to be employed (in particular by high-pay foreign ﬁrms) in both colleges. Female advantage in GPA helped to produce a surprising gender employment gap favoring female graduates. Our empirical evidence does not support the three alternative hypotheses of such a gap. Even though the job-market returns to GPA might be higher for women, there is some weak evidence that the job-market preferred male graduates over their female peers with similar qualiﬁcations. Pre-college urban hukou status and a proxy of father's education had positive impacts on a graduate's educational and employment outcomes. There is no evidence that father's Communist Party membership mattered.　

Keywords: Employment, Graduate, GPA　