教育使人幸福吗?——基于武汉市城镇居民的实证分析

Is Education Matters with Subjective Well-being:An Empirical Study of Urban Wuhan

从中国当前较高的教育投资成本和较低的教育收益这一现实出发,本文运用2007年武汉市城镇居民的主观幸福感调查数据,对教育与主观幸福感的关系进行了探讨。研究结果表明,无论以学历还是受教育年限衡量教育水平,教育对主观幸福感均有显著的正影响,这说明本文的估计结果是稳健的。同时,以学历衡量受教育水平时,还发现教育对主观幸福感的正效应随着学历水平的提高而减小。此外,教育对主观幸福感的作用通过直接和间接两种途径而体现,即教育不仅直接对主观幸福感产生影响,而且还能通过改善个体的收入水平和健康状况间接提升其幸福水平。

Based on the practice of high educational investment cost and low return to education in China, this paper employs the data from urban Wuhan in 2007 and discusses the relationship between education and SWB. The results indicate that when measuring education by education level, it has significantly positive impact on SWB, but the positive impact decrease with education level gradually. When measuring education by schooling years, the conclusion also confirms a positive relationship between education and SWB. Moreover,we also find that education affects SWB directly and indirectly. The channels through which education affects SWB indirectly are income and health.