Abstract
Much research has now shown that, by shaping people’s beliefs and preferences, historical institutions can breed and foster a culture over time. Through the culture channel, some historical institutions are found to have produced a long-lasting impact on the behavior of individuals and economic development more generally. For example, Alesina, Giuliano, and Nunn (2013) show that societies that practiced plough agriculture historically have much less equal gender norms today.
Premised on this "persistence" literature, this lecture examines the possible legacies of one of China’s most important institutions—the imperial examination system or keju (circa 607- 1905)—on human capital outcome today. Based on a data set uniquely constructed on 248 Chinese prefectures spanning the Ming-Qing dynasties (1368-1912), I will first document a close association between historical exam success—measured by the percentage of people who had attained a jinshi degree—the highest attainable qualification back then, and average years of schooling today. As befits an empirical paper, the lecture will also deal with estimation issues caused by omitted variable bias and measurement error, and discuss the possible channels, viz., human capital and culture, through which keju may have impacted years of schooling today. To further verify the role of culture, I will also discuss the results of a quasi-experiment conducted on a group of college students who came from all over China to study in Beijing, including the effect of keju culture on the students’ cognitive skills and non-cognitive performance. Last, but not least, given that keju culture has persisted unevenly across China, the lecture also examines the conditions under which keju culture has persisted strongly, or, conversely, weakened over time.
Reading List
Note: *denotes optional reading
-
Alesina, Alberto, Paola Giuliano, and Nathan Nunn. 2013. “On the Origins of Gender Roles: Women and the Plough.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128 (2): 469-530.
-
Ting Chen, James Kai-sing Kung, and Chicheng Ma. 2016. “Long Live Keju! The Persistent Effects of China’s Imperial Examination System.” Working Paper, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong.
-
Ho, Ping-ti. 1962. The Ladder of Success in Imperial China. New York: Columbia University Press, chapters 1-2.
-
* Nunn, Nathan and Leonard Wantchekon. 2011. “The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa.” American Economic Review, 101(7): 3221-3252.
-
* Voigtländer, Nico, and Hans-Joachim Voth, 2012. “Persecution Perpetuated: the Medieval Origins of Anti-Semitic Violence in Nazi Germany.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127(2):1339-1392.
