家庭背景、专业选择与收入回报——基于中国综合社会调查（CGSS）数据的实证研究

Family Background,Major Choice and Economic Returns:An Empirical Study Based on Chinese General Social Survey

家庭背景通过子代教育实现阶层地位的代际传递,以往国内研究多关注教育机会、教育分流等教育分层的纵向维度,但对教育分层的横向维度--大学专业却缺乏足够的重视。依据CGSS2003和CGSS2008两次截面数据,从理性选择的角度出发,考察家庭背景对专业选择的影响逻辑,并在此基础上探究家庭背景差异经由专业分流再到收入回报的阶层传导机制,研究结果发现家庭背景主要通过"资源"和"偏好"两个逻辑对专业选择产生影响;一方面家庭背景好的人在专业选择中更有优势,可选择的空间更大;另一方面家庭背景好的人更偏好于选择财经、工科等应用性专业,而家庭背景较差的人则倾向于选择人文社科和理科等基础性专业,存在一定程度的专业阶层隔离;同时还发现不同专业的收入回报并不相同,财经、工科等专业相较于人文社科类专业的收入回报更高。因此,家庭背景好的人依靠资源优势和个体偏好进入了收入回报更高的应用性专业,从而实现了优势地位的代际传递。

Previous domestic studies devoted great attention to analyzing the influence of vertical dimensions of educational stratification through educational tracking and educational opportunity,while ignored horizontal dimensions that may also play an important role in educational stratification. This paper takes college majors as one of the intermediate mechanisms in the inter-generational transmission,turning attention from vertical dimensions to horizontal dimensions of educational stratification. From the perspective of rational choice theory,this study employs CGSS2003 and CGSS2008 data to explore the influence logic of family background on major choice and intermediate mechanisms in the inter-generational transmission from family background to major choice to economic returns. The results suggest that family background influence on major choice mainly through resources and preference. On one hand,the individuals from socio-economically advantaged families own the the bigger space for major choice. On the other hand,they demonstrate a stronger propensity to major in business-related and engineering fields rather than humanities and social science fields. At the same time,business-related and engineering majors enjoy higher than humanities and social science majors returns,which leads to the realization of the inter-generational transmission.