Can Transfer Payment Reduce the Inequality of Compulsory Education in Poor Areas? - An Empirical Study

Oct 15, 2026

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Transfer payment plays a major role in poverty alleviation and balanced regional development. Using first-hand survey data from 18 key counties across 6 Chinese provinces, the study applies propensity score matching to estimate how transfer payment funds affect compulsory education outcomes in impoverished areas, and then uses Shapley value decomposition to separate correlated factors. Results indicate that, after controlling student, family, and school characteristics, transfer payments can reduce academic achievements in certain subjects and worsen inequality, potentially through a “crowding out” reduction of local education resources.

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Can Transfer Payment Reduce the Inequality of Compulsory Education in Poor Areas? An Empirical Study Based on the Data from 18 Counties in 6 Provinces in China Weidong Fu, 1 Wei Zhou2 1. Faculty of Artificial Intelligence Education, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, Hubei, China 2. College of Education, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, Hubei, China | Abstract. Transfer payment is of great significance for poverty alleviation and balanced regional development. Based on the first-hand survey data from 18 key counties of 6 provinces in China’s national poverty alleviation and development program, this paper uses propensity score matching to calculate the effects of transfer payment funds on the results of compulsory education in impoverished areas and uses Shapley value decomposition to decompose correlated factors. It finds that when the characteristics of students, families and schools controlled, transfer payment funds significantly lower student academic achievements in some subjects and aggravate the inequality of educational results, which may be the result of the reduction of local education funds caused by the“crowding out effect” of transfer payment. Suggestions are made in this paper to standardize the utilization of transfer payment funds, establish a linkage mechanism between the educational results of poor students and transfer payment funds, implement the assisting plan for teachers and students in poor areas, strengthen the “pertinent support for intelligence development”, and unite multiple agencies to increase input in education, with the purpose of reducing the inequality of compulsory education in poor areas.
Best Evidence in Chinese Education 2022; 10(2):1405-1413.
Doi: [10.15354/bece.22.ar030](10.15354/bece.22.ar030). | | --- | | How to Cite: Fu, W., & Zhou, W. (2022). Can transfer payment reduce the inequality of compulsory education in poor areas? An empirical study based on the data from 18 counties in 6 provinces in China. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, | 10(2):1405-1413. Keywords: Transfer Payment, Poor Areas, Compulsory Education, Educational Results, Propensity Score Matching (PSM), Shapley Value Decomposition About Authors: Wei Zhou, College of Education, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, Hubei, China. [E-mail:](E-mail: zhouwei19980726@163.com)[ ](E-mail: zhouwei19980726@163.com)[zhouwei19980726@163.com](E-mail: zhouwei19980726@163.com) Correspondence to: Weidong Fu, Faculty of Artificial Intelligence Education, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, Hubei, China. E-mail: [604143009@qq.com](604143009@qq.com) Conflict of Interests: None. © 2022 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed by the Insights Publisher. AMARTYA Sen (as cited in Xiao & Li, 2021) once gave his insights into the relation between poverty and education that measuring poverty by economic standards is only the minimum threshold while the deprivation of the possibility of individual development constitutes the essence of poverty. Alleviating poverty through education is critical to addressing the issue of poverty in knowledge, skills, mental strength, culture, and information in one’s disadvantaged times (Fu, 2021) and fundamental to interception of intergenerational transmission of poverty (Li et al., 2020) . Registration of impoverished households is a key component in China’s targeted poverty alleviation program, basically funded by transfer payment (Chen et al., 2020) . To evaluate the effects of transfer payment on student academic achievements in

FAQs

What research question does the paper address?

Whether transfer payment can reduce inequality in compulsory education outcomes in poor areas in China.

What methods are used to estimate the effects?

Propensity score matching estimates the impact of transfer payment funds, and Shapley value decomposition analyzes correlated factors and mechanisms.

What does the study find about transfer payment effects?

After controlling for student, family, and school characteristics, transfer payment funds significantly lower academic achievements in some subjects and aggravate educational outcome inequality.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Bulrr