Research by Di Xu and Xin Gong
Research by Economics and Education PhD alumna Di Xu and PhD student Xin Gong has found that household income in China is directly correlated to preschool attendance.
Writing with Wen-Jui Han of NYU's Silver School of Social Work, Xu and Gong found "a robust positive association between household income and preschool attendance in both rural and urban settings," according to an article published on the MedicalXPress website.
In the first study to employ rigorous methodology to examine the association between household income and preschool attendance with a Chinese sample, the authors calculate that a 10 percent boost in household income would bring close to a 1 percentage point increase in preschool attendance, or about 1 million more 3- to 6-year-old children in China.The findings are especially important because more than 70 percent of mothers in the 25–34 age range with children under the age of 6 in China work outside the home, suggesting that many who need childcare cannot afford it. Household income has consistently been shown to affect child care choices in both developed and developing countries.
"Our results show that millions of families in China face substantial financial constraints in their children's preschool attendance, particularly in rural areas. Taken together, our findings call for government investment to address this challenge. Our results also highlight the need for future research that evaluates the impacts of subsidies or income support programs for preschool attendance in China."
Read the article here.
Published Tuesday, Mar. 3, 2015