Effect of Parental Migration on the Academic Performance of Left Behind Children in North Western China

China’s rapid development and urbanization has induced large numbers of rural residents to migrate from their homes in the countryside to urban areas in search of higher wages. As a consequence, it is estimated that more than 60 million children in rural China are left behind and live with relatives, typically their paternal grandparents. These children are called Left Behind Children (or LBCs). There are concerns about the potential negative effects of parental migration on the academic performance of the LBCs that could be due to the absence of parental care. However, it might also be that when a child’s parents work in the city away from home, their remittances can increase the household’s income and provide more resources and that this can lead to better academic performance. Hence, the net impact of outmigration on the academic performance of LBCs is unclear. This paper examines changes in academic performance before and after the parents of students out-migrate. We draw on a panel dataset collected by the authors of more than 13,000 students at 130 rural primary schools in ethnic minority areas of rural China. Using difference-in-difference and propensity score matching approaches, our results indicate that generally parental migration has significant, positive impacts on the academic performance of LBCs (which we measure using standardized English test scores). Heterogeneous analysis using our data demonstrates that the positive impact on LBCs is greater for poorer performing students. Effect of Parental Migration on the Academic Performance of Left-behind Children in Northwestern China Yu Bai, Linxiu Zhang, Chengfang Liu *, Yaojiang Shi, Di Mo, Scott Rozelle 1 Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 3 Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China 4 Center for Experimental Economics in Education (CEEE), Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710119, China 5 Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, Stanford, USA Corresponding author: Dr. Chengfang Liu Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Peking University Yiheyuan Road No. 5, Haidian District, Beijing, 100871, China Email : [email protected]; Phone : 86-180-117-5311; Fax: 86-10-6485-6533 Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 71473240, 71333012).