Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.5, 2014

Can Education Make Us Healthier?—A Comparative Analysis of Urban and Rural Areas Based on the Chinese General Social Survey for 2010

(Abstract)

Hu Anning

In modern society, the influence of educational attainment on the individual’s life is embodied not only in economic returns in the labor market, but also in many intangible returns. On the basis of national data from the 2010 Chinese General Social Survey, our analysis of disparities between the health returns to urban and rural educational attainment and the mediating factors in such returns shows that education has positive health returns for both urban and rural areas, but there are differences between the two in terms of health returns to compulsory education and senior high school. This may be attributable to the disparity in the quality of compulsory education in urban and rural areas. Therefore, spreading senior high school education in rural areas and further improving urban-rural integration in terms of educational quality rather than simply quantity should be a requisite part of the relevant educational policies.