Exploring the Impact of Birth Cohort Size on Education Achievement of Cohort Members

Using the data from China General Social Survey 2005, this research explores the major and modulatory effects of birth cohort size on education achievement of cohort members in China, from longitudinal and cohort perspective. Results show that birth cohort size has significant impacts on education achievement of cohort members, and cohort members in larger size birth cohort have lower education achievement. However, the impacts of birth cohort size on male and female, on urban people and rural people are different, and the reduction of birth cohort size will narrow the gap between these two groups. Besides, this paper decomposes net effect of birth cohort size by simulation and points out that it is the discordant change between population reproduction and education capacity that leads to this result.