On the Financial Gap among Local Governments in China

This paper presents an education attainment gap between 31 Chinese provinces, from 1998 to 2008 based on the Education Gini coefficient. This empirical analysis finds that, first, the average schooling years 6.72 in 1998 became 7.98 in 2008. This figure means most of the people attained junior high school level. Second, education inequality measured by education Gini coefficient for most of the Chinese provinces has been declining during a decade; from 0.293 in 1998 to 0.248 in 2008. Third, inner-provincial education attainment gap was existed in Xizang, Qinghai and Gansu; each provinces’ Gini index wear 0.516, 0.489, 0.374 in 1998 and 0.422, 0.322, 0.310 in 2008. Though, Chinese central government has emphasized to fix education disparities between provinces, for the further development in China, inner-provinces’ education disparities should be focused.