Human Capital

Question 1

Evolution of living standards and Human capital in 18-20th century China

Answer 1

Authors reconstruct a profile of the evolution of Chinese living standards using real wage and anthropometric data

• Beijing and Shanghai: real wages remained around stagnation throughout 1738-1918.
• London and Amsterdam: real wages started at a higher intercept and steadily improved throughout time
• Real wage data confirms the traditional view that divergence was present between Europe and China
• Differences in nutrition captured by height growth was prevalent in China whereas height linearly improved for European counterparts
• Numeracy in China improved from 1820-1890 due to improvements in age heaping: comparable to Europe

Question 2

Political, Social and Cultural Reproduction via civil service examinations in imperial China

Answer 2

Political Reproduction
- Education served as a means for the state to maintain public order and political efficacy.
- 60:40 North: South. Illusion of fairness
- Confucian education in ancient China emphasized state interests, political values, and loyalty through rigorous exams for selecting officials.

Social Reproduction
- The process of perpetuating social inequalities by privileging certain groups over others.
- Examination success -> mark of prestige -> however an unequal distribution of of linguistic training provided unfair advantages to elites which perpetuated social inequalities and reinforced dominance of certain groups over others. Wealthy <—> Success.

Cultural Reproduction
- Mastery of classical Chinese a prerequisite -> created linguistic hegemony that marginalized non-elites
- Lineage-endowed schooling provided opportunities for advancement within lineage groups

Civil service exams remained the main avenue for wealth & power which disguised social stratification and legitimized the differentiation of Chinese society