Long Live Keju! The Persistent Effects of China’s Imperial Examination System

The effect of keju — China’s imperial examination system (607-1905) — on human capital outcomes persists to this day. Using the variation in the density of jinshi — the highest qualification — across 248 Chinese prefectures to proxy for the keju effect, and river distance to a prefecture’s nearest printing center as instrument, we find that a 1% increase in jinshi density increases years of schooling by 6.6%. After controlling for the effects of human capital of both ancestors and parents, the Chinese culture of valuing education — bred likely by the exceptional social status of the jinshi — represents the other channel in accounting for the observed persistence. A quasi-experiment of college students from all over China studying in Beijing further reveals that the jinshi density in their hometowns bears significantly upon their cognitive skills and non-cognitive performance. Finally, cultural transmission is aided by clans and weakened by the Cultural Revolution.