Traditional and Modern Education Types and Regional Economic Development in Late Qing China
Constructing natural experiments based on historical educational events is a cutting-edge method to identify causal relationships between education and economic development,but the ensuing issue of educational diversity has not received sufficient attention from empirical researchers.In the context of the coexistence of multiple forms of education and the transition between traditional and modern education in late Qing China,this study constructs an empirical strategy using both period and regional differences in educational development to compare the effects of different types of education on modern economic development.The results show that the economic contribution of the modern schools was more pronounced than that of the traditional Confucian governmental schools and foreign mission schools;the difference in the supply of high-quality labor force between different education types is an important reason for this result;however,all three types of education could only raise the economic level but not the economic growth rate.These findings underscore the importance of the practical and secular nature of education for the modern economy,and point to the need for developing countries to address the"low technical content"of schooling in the early stages of modernization.
education typeeconomic developmentuseful knowledgelate Qing China
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
