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The Short- and Long-Run Effects of Affirmative Action: Evidence from Imperial China

19 November 2021, 1:00 pm–2:00 pm

China forbidden city

A SSEES CCSEE seminar with Dr Melanie Meng Xue (LSE)

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

SSEES

In this online seminar, Dr Xue will present her work on the effect of affirmative action policies in imperial China on human capital accumulation, social mobility and regional inequalities. Qing China used an examination system to select government officials. The paper examines a policy reform in 1712 which allowed individuals from underrepresented provinces to pass the exam with lower scores. The reform led to an increase in successful candidates in underrepresented provinces. The findings show that such gains were concentrated among prefectures with the greatest advantage in imperial exams prior to the reform, resulting in intra-provincial inequalities that persisted over decades.

Image credit: Peggy_Marco on Pixabay

About the speaker

Dr Melanie Meng Xue (LSE)

Melanie’s research interests include political economy, gender, folklore, and early modern and modern Chinese history. Her work examines the rise of women, the self-perpetuation of authoritarian regimes, and the evolution of antisocial behavior in the early modern and modern period. By tracing the impact of historical events over time and in various institutional settings, her work centers on the role of values, beliefs and norms in shaping economic and political disparities. In studying folklore, she discovered oral traditions are a powerful measure of the historical component of contemporary values, beliefs and norms, connecting history and culture. This line of inquiry has produced a dataset of historical values across countries and ethnic groups through analyzing folklore themes.