Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP12053
Authors: Grard Roland; David Yang
Abstract: Beliefs about whether effort pays off govern some of the most fundamental choices individ- ual make. This paper uses China’s Cultural Revolution to understand how these beliefs can be affected, how they impact behavior, and how they are transmitted across generations. During the Cultural Revolution, China’s college admission system based on entrance exams was sus- pended for a decade until 1976, effectively depriving an entire generation of young people of the opportunity to access higher education (the “lost generation”). Using data from a nation- ally representative survey, we compare cohorts who graduated from high school just before and after the college entrance exam was resumed. We find that members of the “lost genera- tion” who missed out on college because they were born just a year or two too early believe that effort pays off to a much lesser degree, even 40 years into their adulthood. However, they invested more in their children’s education, and transmitted less of their changed beliefs to the next generation, suggesting attempts to safeguard their children from sharing their misfor- tunes.
Keywords: China; Cultural Revolution; Cultural Change; Cultural Transmission; Changes in Beliefs
JEL Codes: Z1; I23; O53; P26; P48
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Cultural Revolution (P39) | beliefs about effort and success (D29) |
| Cultural Revolution (P39) | distrust towards government (H12) |
| Cultural Revolution (P39) | investment in children's education (I21) |
| lost generation's beliefs about effort and success (D29) | children's beliefs about effort and success (D29) |