地方财政教育投入正外部性的实证分析——基于东、中、西部的比较

An Empirical Study of the Positive Externality of Local Government's Financial Education Investment——Based on the Comparison of Eastern, Central and Western Regions

根据人力资本外部性理论,教育投入也会产生外部性。我们运用经过改进的柯布道格拉斯生产函数和卢卡斯模型,对1996-2006年我国东、中、西部的教育经费、GDP、人力资本存量、固定资本存量的面板数据进行地方财政教育投入正外部性实证分析。结果表明:各地区教育经费投入,对人力资本的形成有显著作用,且西部>东部>中部;东部人力资本对东、中、西三部的经济增长都有显著作用。但中西部人力资本对各自地区经济增长的作用不显著。显然,地方教育投入(主要是基础教育投入)存在着正外部性,在基础教育投入方面,不同区域地方政府与中央政府的分担比例应有所区别。

Based on the theory of the human capital externality there can be financial education investment externality.Applying the modified Cobb-Douglas production function and Lucas model,this paper conducts an empirical analysis of the positive externality of local government’ s education investment using the relevant panel data from 1996 to 2006 in eastern,central and western parts of China.The results indicate that the education investment has positive effects on human capital in those three regions with western region ranking first and eastern region second and central region third in this regard and that the human capital in eastern China has remarkable positive effects on the economic growth in those three regions.However,the human capital in western and central China has no significant effects on their own economic growth.Therefore,local governments’ education investment（mainly basic education investment） has positive externality.Thus,the central government rather than local government should undertake different proportions of the basic education.