Why do student cadre earn more? —Study on the mechanism of Chinese head student wage premium

​Student cadre are considered as elites in university and favored by employers in China. The experience of being student cadre proved to be a great advantage in the labor market by quite a few empirical analyses. However, its complicated mechanism on wage premium is still not clearly revealed. Based on the database of the Chinese Education Panel Survey (CEPS), this study analyzed the effect of student cadre on wages. First, it is concluded that the status of student cadre has a significant and positive effect on wages. The result is robust based on Heckman''s correction and inverse probability weighting method. Regarding the mechanism, we found that serving as member of student cadre can significantly develop their employability including professional knowledge, work ability and interpersonal relationships. In other words, besides a screening signal, the status of  student cadre is indeed a kind of accumulation of human and social capital.