高等教育与收入分配:改变命运还是阶层锁定——基于CGSS2008数据的实证研究

Higher Education and Income Distribution: Change of Destiny or Locking of Hierarchy——An Empirical Study based on Data CGSS2008

利用中国社会综合调查2008年数据,对高等教育与收入分配之间的关系进行了系统考察。通过基础的OLS回归发现,接受高等教育可以有效提高个体收入,且提高幅度远大于整体教育以及义务教育等阶段;通过分位数回归发现,高等教育在不同收入分位点上的影响存在着显著的差异,对于中低收入群体体现出比高收入群体更高的回报率,起到了缩小收入差距的作用;倾向得分匹配的结果显示,普通OLS估计方法对于高等教育回报率估计产生微弱的向下偏误,结合OB分解可以得出结论,即高等教育与家庭背景等个人特征因素对于收入差距的贡献是相互抵消的,接受高等教育很大程度上弥补了家庭背景、社会关系造成的收入差异,成为打破阶层锁定、改变命运的有效途径。本文的分析结果,为高等教育的发展、高等教育作用的发挥以及缩小收入差距政策的制定提供了经验证据。

Based on OLS regression, we find that higher education can improve individual income, and the increase is far greater than the overall education and compulsory education. The outcome of quantile regression shows that the returns in higher education are significantly different at different quantiles of the income, and the ruturns to education is higher for low-income groups than highincome groups. Through propensity score matching, we can find that the OLS estimation pro.duces weak downward bias when estimates return to higher education. Higher education is an effective way to break the locking of hierarchy and change fate.