“教育是公共产品”吗?——对一个流行观点的质疑

Is Education Public Goods? A Definition of the Economic Nature of Education

作者从界定外部性这一基本的经济学概念出发 ,探讨了公共产品的判断标准及其与外部性的关系。教育的产品属性依赖于它被提供的方式 ,同一层次的教育既可能是公共产品 ,又可能是准公共产品 ,还可能是私人产品。教育作为公共产品只是政府补贴教育的一种特殊制度安排。在市场日益介入教育的情况下 。

The author first defines the externalities and then expounds the standard of public goods and the relationship between externalities and public goods. Not in any case is education public goods, because the economic nature of education depends on the way it is supplied. Education can be private goods and on the meanwhile can be public goods. Education as public goods is only one way of government's subsidy to education. With the relationship between education and market drawing nearer and nearer, we should study the alternatives of government's subsidy to education.