劳动力市场分割的技能偏向如何影响家庭人力资本投资

How Does Skills Bias in the Labor Market Segmentation Affects Human Capital Investment of Family

人力资本是中国经济增长和转型的重要影响因素,在过去的经济发展中,中国地区层面不同技能劳动力的需求变化对人力资本投资产生了怎样的影响呢?本文首先构建理论模型阐述了就业技能需求影响人力资本投资的机制;然后使用2002—2012年中国工业企业数据和城镇住户调查数据研究了地级市层面就业技能结构变化对家庭人力资本投资的影响。结果发现,地区就业技能结构中高技能占比提高会显著促进家庭增加人力资本投资;反之,若低技能占比提高,则会显著降低家庭人力资本投资。此外,本文使用出口冲击和至港口距离作为工具变量解决实证过程中可能存在的内生性问题后,上述结论仍然成立。本文的研究表明,家庭人力资本投资决策受到局部劳动力市场的显著影响;并且以家庭教育支出和适龄青少年大学入学率度量的人力资本投资受到的影响更为显著。本文的研究有助于深入理解过去中国经济发展过程中,就业技能结构的演变以及就业技能结构影响人力资本投资的机制及效果。

Accumulation of human capital is an important source of China’s economic growth.With the rapid growth of China in the past,what impact has the employment skills structure had on the human capital investment?This paper constructs a theoretical model to elaborate the mechanism of employment skills demand affecting human capital investment and uses the data of Chinese industrial enterprises and the China Urban Household Survey data from 2002 to 2012 to examine the effect of employment skills structure on household investment in human capital.It finds that the more local employment is biased toward higher skills,the larger the family invests in human capital.On the contrary,the more local employment is biased toward lower skills,the less the family invests in human capital.After using instrumental variables to alleviate endogenous problems,the above conclusions are still valid.This shows that family investment decisions on human capital are significantly affected by the local labor market,especially for the human capital measured by the education expenditure and high-school enrollment rate.This paper is helpful to understand the evolution of China’s employment skills structure,and the mechanisms and effects of the impact that the employment skills structure had on human capital investment.