Intergenerational Educational Mobility in Rural Economy: Evidence from China and India

We extend the Becker-Tomes (1986) model of intergenerational educational mobility to a rural economy characterized by occupational dualism (farm vs. nonfarm) and provide a comparative analysis of rural India and rural China. Using two exceptional data-sets, we estimate father-sons intergenerational educational persistence in farm and nonfarm households free of truncation bias due to coresidency. The sons in rural India faced lower educational mobility compared to the sons in rural China in the 1990s and earlier. Father’s nonfarm occupation and education were complementary in determining a son’s schooling in India, but separable in China. However, the separability observed for the older cohorts in rural China broke down for the younger cohort. Evidence from supplementary data on economic mechanisms shows that the extended Becker-Tomes model provides plausible explanations for both the cross-country heterogeneity (India vs. China), and the evolution of mobility across cohorts in China.