PUBLICATIONS & REPORTS

Contents Introduction

This report presents results from initial analysis of the China Adult Literacy Survey (CALS), a study of adult literacy among urban workers in China. We document how the instruments were designed to measure quantitative, document, and prose literacy in the Chinese context, describe how literacy is related to different worker characteristics, and use the literacy measures to analyze how human capital affects wage and employment outcomes.

One contribution of the study is to explain how adult literacy surveys can be designed and implemented in China. A second is to describe the adult literacy of the Chinese work force in different cities and how it relates to worker characteristics. We find substantial differences in adult literacy across levels of education and across cities (even after controlling for education). Finally, preliminary explorations using test scores in standard wage regressions and employment model estimations suggest that use of the CALS or similar instruments can provide useful insight into China's transitional labor market. Literacy tests measure important aspects of human capital, not captured by years of education, that have important effects on labor outcomes.