On March 22,2024, from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM, Peking University Institute for Global Health and Development successfully hosted the  fourth session of the Spring 2024 Reading Club.The speaker of this event is Xuefeng Hu, a doctoral student from the School of Public Management at Southwest University of Finance and Economics.

In this event, the speaker shared a research achievement published by Ying Bai et al. in the journal Econometrica, titled "Elite Rehabilitation and Political Stability: The Impact of the Abolition of China's Civil Service Exam". The article studies the impact of the abolition of China's civil service examination system, the elite selection system, which has lasted for over 1300 years, on political stability. Through panel data analysis of 262 prefecture level cities, the study found that after the abolition of the Xinhai Revolution, a higher per capita quota was associated with a higher participation rate in the revolution and a higher incidence of uprisings after the end of the Xinhai Revolution. This discovery is beneficial for various tests, including using the number of small rivers and short-term exam scores before the quota system as tools. The analysis of the data is most consistent with the following explanation: under the examination system, in areas with higher per capita quotas, the abolition of the imperial examination has a greater negative impact on the upward mobility of citizens. In addition, research findings have shown that modern human capital, which exists in the form of studying abroad in Japan, has also contributed to the revolution, while social capital has enhanced the impact of quotas on revolutionary participation.

Source：Bai, Y. , &  Jia, R. . (2016). Elite recruitment and political stability: the impact of the abolition of china's civil service exam. Econometrica, 84(2), 677-733.

（By Xuefeng Hu）