The impact of an un(der)funded inclusive education policy: Evidence from the 2013 China education panel survey

Using the 2013 China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), we study impact of accessing better schools – a 2008 inclusive education policy through which central government mandated urban public to exempt migrant children from tuition and temporary schooling fees. Whereas non-disclosure rule regarding geographical location CEPS sampling units precludes control locational characteristics, identify causal effect by exploiting constituent elements CEPS's primary units. Namely, only use non-migrant rural hukou living in counties nationally representative sample as group ( never-takers ), while, treatment group, include who are currently China's top 120 migrant-receiving or city districts, Shanghai. We also distinguish started before after separate groups always-takers compliers , respectively. Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment (IPWRA) approach, find that average on is around 0.18 SD, measured standardised cognitive test score large effect. present complementary evidence tends be larger for municipalities provincial capitals, consistently with notion (potential) value-added attending higher initial gap schools.