学而优则“市”?——学历高级化对创业意愿的影响及其作用机制研究

Is a Good Learner More Likely to Become an Entrepreneur?——A Study on the Impact and Mechanism of Higher Education Attainment on Entrepreneurship

本文首先分析揭示了学历高级化影响创业意愿的作用机理,构建起机会成本、社会资本、认知能力、风险态度四项渠道组成的综合机制;在考虑内生性的基础上,本文利用中国家庭金融调查数据识别学历高级化对创业意愿的因果性影响、运用因果中介效应分析方法检验其作用机制。基准模型结果发现,学历高级化对创业意愿产生了负向因果性影响,该结论在多项检验中均表现稳健。异质性分析结果显示,学历高级化对非海归群体、二本和三本高校毕业群体、缺乏家庭创业传承(父母均未创业)群体、东西部群体、城镇群体的创业意愿产生了抑制效应,对海归群体、一本高校毕业群体、农村地区人群的创业意愿则产生了强化效应。机制分析表明,学历高级化正是通过上述四项渠道构成的平行机制显著地影响创业意愿,且由于机会成本渠道的负向效应强于后三项渠道的正向效应之和,学历高级化对创业意愿的净效应表现为负。研究结论对明确大众创业的主体、推进创业政策的完善具有启发意义。

The impact of higher education attainment on entrepreneurship was analyzed through four channels,i.e.opportunity cost,social capital,cognitive ability and risk attitude.Both China Family Finance Survey data and Causal Mediation Effect Analysis method were employed to identify the causality between education attainment and entrepreneurial willingness.The benchmark model suggests a negative causal effect of education attainment on entrepreneurial willingness,and the negative effect is robust to various checks.Results of heterogeneity analysis show that higher education attainments have a suppressive effect on the entrepreneurial willingness of the eastern,the western,the urban,the students with non-overseas degrees,the graduates from the second and third batch of universities and those short of family entrepreneurship,but have a positive effect on that of the rural,the students with overseas degrees and the domestic graduates from the first batch of universities.Findings of causal mediation effect analysis suggest that the impact of education attainment on entrepreneurship is precisely through the parallel mechanism of opportunity cost,social capital,cognitive ability and risk attitude.Since the negative magnitude of opportunity cost is much stronger than the aggregated positive magnitude of the latter three,the net effect of higher education attainment on entrepreneurship is negative.The conclusions of this study are instructive for clarifying the main body of mass entrepreneurship and promoting the improvement of entrepreneurial policies.