中国农村的教育收益率研究

Rising Returns to Education in Rural China

本文使用国际社会学界目前最为常用的调查数据之一研究中国农村地区的教育收益率。以往的研究发现农村教育收益率直至1990年代早期仍然很低,本研究发现到1996年,农村教育收益率已经有了相当的提高。这一提高的主要原因是农村地区快速的非农经济发展。由于非农经济发展在全国范围内的不均衡,教育收益率的水平在不同地区之间差别较大。在非农经济尚未起飞的地方,教育收益率仍然很低,而在非农经济有了长足发展的地方,教育收益率明显升高。更进一步地,本研究发现劳动力市场在配置农村劳动力资源方面发挥着重要作用,但是非农部门内的教育收益率并没有显著高于农业部门。不过这一情况可能在沿海地区正发生改变。

This study examines the rate of return to education in rural China, using data from one of the surveys most widely employed by foreign-based sociologists. Compared with earlier studies that show rather low returns to education in rural areas throughout the 1980s, this study finds a remarkable change in the 1990s— the rate of return to education was considerably higher in 1996. A chief contributor is rapid non-agricultural development, which creates enormous upward mobility opportunities, particularly for the more educated.Due to uneven non-agricultural development nationwide, returns to education vary widely across localities. In villages where the non-agricultural economy has yet to take off, returns to education remain low. In contrast, in villages where off-farm employment is widespread, returns to education are much higher.This study further finds that the labor market is functioning to allocate the more educated to better paid jobs, but has yet to produce higher returns to education in the non-agricultural than in the agricultural sector.However,changes may be occurring in coastal areas.