On October 12, at the invitation of the Faculty of Business and Management (FBM), Professor Zhu Yu delivered a distinguished lecture titled "Does It Pay to Attend More Selective High School? Evidence from China ". Prof. Steve WB Liu, Dean of FBM gave a welcome speech.

Prof. Steve WB Liu, Dean of FBM gave a welcome speech

Professor Zhu undertook a PhD in Economics at the University of Cambridge which was awarded in 1998. He is Professor of Economics at the University of Dundee, Research Fellow of the IZA - Institute of Labor Economics, Fellow of the Global Labor Organization (GLO) and council member of the Scottish Economic Society (SES). He is member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Family and Economic Issues, and Visiting Professorial Fellow at UNSW Canberra, Australia. Besides, he has consulting experience with the UK Department for Education (DfE), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), among others. His research interests include the economics of education, labour economics, and applied microeconometrics, and he has published more than 40 professional papers and reports in related fields.

Professor Zhu first introduced the background, purpose and significance of his research. Professor Zhu indicated that this research presents new evidence on the causal effect of attending academic more selective high schools on High School General Exam (HSGE) scores by using novel administrative data for the population of urban students in one prefecture in north central China who started high school in 2010. Professor Zhu then introduced the methodology of the study, this research combines a normalizing-and-pooling fuzzy regression discontinuity design (RDD) strategy with a cumulative multi-cutoff RDD setup to address the complexity of the under-funded Chinese public education system. Finally, Professor Zhu presented the results and the main conclusions in detail, he indicated that the results of the fuzzy RDD analysis show the opposite conclusion to many other developing countries. In China, attending academically selective public high schools results in zero effect, at best, on high school exit exam scores for marginal students who barely passed the admission cutoffs. Especially, there is the significant and negative effect of attending a flagship school for marginal students’ academic outcomes. Professor Zhu’s research has important implications for students and parents, as well as policy makers. He indicated that it is generally believed that intense competition and superior peer quality at more academically selective school can only enhance attendants’ academic achievements. Actually, paying substantial selection-fees or the even more substantial private tuitions fees to send marginal students to over-competitive elite schools could be counterproductive.

The Audiences

Professor Zhu's wonderful lecture immersed the audience. In Q&A part, the audience had an in-depth discussion with Professor Zhu on the principles of RDD model, analysis of empirical results, and future research directions.

Q & A Session