Regulating Private Tutoring : Family Responses to the Double-Reduction Policy in China

Recently China has issued the Double-Reduction (DR) policy, which is an unprecedented revolution in education. Exploiting the timing variation across cities, we show that exposure to this policy led to less reliance on private tutoring and more importance attached to family education, leading to distinct impacts on mental health for both parents and children. We also find that this policy leads to the shift in other substitutional educational investment behaviors, such as demanding one-to-one tutoring services and other high-cost tools. Our staggered difference-in-difference estimates suggest that people in cities with lower populations and more education resources would react to this policy more visibly. These findings point to the role that the DR policy play in individuals’ behaviors and choices, and conclude this policy has achieved its original goal in the short term