As China transforms from a socialist planned economy to a market-oriented economy, its returns to education are … for education: the China Compulsory Education Law of 1986. We use differences among provinces in the dates of effective … implementation of the compulsory education law to show that the law raised overall educational attainment in China by about 0.8 years …

China's gradualistic approach allowed the government to learn how the economy reacts to small policy changes, and to …