Ethnical characteristics and educational attainment in Macao, China

Ethnicity refers to a group of people who share particular characteristics and identity in society. Being a member of an ethnicity means sharing values, power, and status of the corresponding group. Many studies have shown that ethnical differences exist in communities, but the empirical research on the ethnicities of Chinese and Portuguese in Macao, the very first city of China interacting with the West, is scant. This paper uses the multinomial logit model and presents evidence about the influence of ethnical characteristics on the educational attainment in Macao, China. Data are drawn from the Statistics and Census Service of the government of Macao China. The findings confirm that ethnical characteristics do affect educational attainment after controlling for age and gender. In addition, multiracial (Chinese and Portuguese) and Portuguese have higher educational attainment in general, however, the effects of ethnic characteristics are decreasing in young generations.