BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.7, No.1, 2021 925 

 

 

 

 

Matthew Effect or Fair Effect 

By Fang, C., & Huang, B. 

Correspondence to: Fang, C., Lecturer, School of Public Administration, Nan-

jing University of Finance & Economics, China. Email: 99288137@qq.com 

S the financial educational funding from the government became more 

adequate, what role does family education expenditure play? Does it 

promote educational equity? These problems are worth pondering. Many 

studies have found that the higher the economic status and educational level 

of families, the higher the monetary investment in after-class tutoring. If in-

vestment in family education can significantly promote the development of 

students, then policymakers should be wary of the possible “Matthew effect”. 

Based on this, research published in Education & Economy uses the data of 

China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) from 2013 to 2014, taking the stu-

dent’s cognitive level as the dependent variable, and the monetary invest-

ment of the student’s family in after-class tutoring as the core independent 

variable constructs the regression model of an education production function. 

At the same time, students with different cognitive levels may be affected 

differently by investment in after-class tutoring. Therefore, Conditional 

Quantile Regression and Generalized Quantile Regression were used to test 

the possible heterogeneity. The results are as follows: 

 The regression model shows that family education investment can 

significantly predict the cognitive level of students. For every unit 

increase in after-school interest or cram school that parents pay for a 

child over the course of a semester, the standardized cognitive test 

score rose 3.9 percent. 

 The Conditional Quantile Regression was used to test the effect 

among students with low, middle, and high scores. Among the stu-

dents with low scores, the regression coefficient was negative and 

significant, indicating that for the students with low cognitive ability, 

more investment in family education was not conducive to the im-

provement of students’ cognitive ability. Further use of Generalized 

Quantile Regression also found the “Matthew effect”, that is, more 

the investment in family human capital will widen the gap between 

groups of students at both ends of the cognitive ability distribution, 

which will lead to the “Matthew effect” that “the stronger the strong, 

A 



 

Vol.7, No.1, 2021 926 

the weaker the weak”, which is not conducive to promoting the equi-

ty of educational outcome. 

 

Source: Education & Economy, 2020; 36(4): 58-67.