Cohort crowding in education and employment: Evidence from China's compulsory education law

This study investigates the effect of cohort crowding on educational attainment and la-bor market performance by employing discontinuities in schooling cohort size induced by China's Compulsory Education Law. Similar to other developing countries, basic education in China was severely under-funded when the educational reforms were initiated in the 1980s. We find a negative crowding effect on completed years of schooling. Heterogeneity analysis suggests that the crowding effect is more substantial in provinces with poor en-dowment and in rural areas. We also find suggestive evidence of a larger cohort size on employment rate among poorly-educated people.(c) 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.