Does School Quality Matter?: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Rural China.

This paper investigates the impact of high school quality on students’ educational attainment using a regression discontinuity research design that compares students just above and below entrance examination score thresholds that strictly determine admission to the best high schools in China’s rural counties. Using data from Gansu Province in China, we find that attending the best high school in one’s county of residence increases college entrance examination scores by 0.21 standard deviations and increases the probability of qualifying for college admission by 18.7 percentage points conditional on taking the college entrance exam, but decreases the probability of taking a college entrance examination by 9.3 percentage points