中国式人情关系会影响教育回报吗?——基于中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)的实证分析

Does Chinese Human Relationship Affect Education Return?——Empirical Evidence Based on China Family Panel Studies

中国式人情社会下,以送礼行为存在的非正式制度是否会影响教育回报尚未得到理论和实证层面的证据支持。鉴于此,本文基于扩展的明瑟工资方程,利用中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)微观数据,运用OLS 和非线性面板门限计量方法,着重研究了人情关系对于教育回报的影响及其区域异质性。研究发现:第一,人情关系会增加教育的回报,平均来说,送礼的教育回报(9.9%)大于不送礼的教育回报(7.05%)。第二,门限回归的结果也表明,送礼越多,教育的回报越高。第三,人情关系对教育回报的影响呈现出地区异质性。在东部,教育回报率几乎不受人情关系的影响;在中部,人情关系主要影响高教育水平群体的教育回报;在西部,人情关系影响所有人的收入,却不影响教育回报。不同地区的教育回报受到人情关系影响的程度和方式是不同的,因此应有针对性地制定劳动力市场管理政策,本文也从非正式制度视角对地区之间的教育回报差距提供了新的解读。

In the Chinese human society, whether the informal system of giftgiving will affect educational returns has not been supported by theoretical and empirical evidence. Based on the micro data of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) and the extended Mincer salary equation, we use the Ordinary Least Square method and the threshold regression method to analyze the impact of human relationship on the education returns. The findings are as follows: Firstly, we have discovered that the educational payoff of giving gifts (7.05%) is greater than the educational payoff of not giving gifts at all (9.9%). Secondly, the results of threshold regression show that the higher the gift expenditure, the higher the return of education. Thirdly, the influence of human relationship on education returns shows regional heterogeneity. The education returns in the eastern are independent of human relations, human relations in the central mainly influence the education returns of people with high education levels, and human relations in the western affects the income of all people, independent of their education levels. Different regions have different degrees and ways in which educational returns are affected by human relations. Therefore, labor market management policies should be formulated accordingly. This paper also provides a new interpretation of the gap in educational returns between regions from the perspective of informal system.