Does affirmative action in Chinese college admissions lead to mismatch? Educational quality and the relative returns to a baccalaureate degree for minorities in China

Abstract

This paper utilizes data from the 2002 Chinese Household Income Project to estimate the labor market return to graduating from college relative to high school. Parameter estimates of heterogeneous treatment effects reveal that for minorities, the average treatment effect of earning a baccalaureate degree from colleges/universities ranked good and very good is high relative to the Han majority, and for those actually receiving the treatment from colleges/universities ranked good. Our findings suggest that the mismatch hypothesis cannot be viewed as a universal phenomenon that renders affirmative action in college/university admissions an ineffective policy tool to redress/remedy historic discrimination against minority groups.