新式教育、人力资本与工资溢价——基于上海商业储蓄银行职员档案的实证研究

Modern Education,Human Capital and Wage Premium:Empirical Research Based on the Staff File of Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank

自工业革命以来,人力资本在经济发展和社会变革中发挥了越来越重要的作用。但由于难于区分教育的技能效应和信号效应,人力资本与工资溢价之间的关系仍然存在不确定性,而近代时期的新旧教育长期并存,为我们深入讨论劳动力市场的异质性问题提供了历史基础。文章基于20世纪30年代上海商业储蓄银行职员档案的微观数据,考察了新式教育对银行职员工资的影响及其机制。研究表明:(1)相对于传统教育,新式教育有着明显的工资溢价,较高程度的学校教育具有较高的工资回报;(2)新式教育的工资溢价主要来自于劳动者工作技能的提高,而不是信号效应;(3)由于具有较高人力资本的职员具有更强的工作能力和适应新工作的能力,因此晋升速度和部门调动(在行内的工作经验)是实现其工资溢价的重要机制。文章不仅为近代社会的教育回报提供了实证案例,而且通过历史案例推进了工资回报与劳动力异质性关系的研究深入,也为理解人力资本在近代中国的经济转型和发展中的作用提供了一个微观视角。

Since the industrial revolution,human capital has played an increasingly important role in economic development and social change.However,the relationship between human capital and the wage premium remains uncertain due to the difficulty in distinguishing the skill effect and the signaling effect of education.The prolonged coexistence of traditional Chinese education and Western-style education in the modern period provides a historical basis for the in-depth discussion on the heterogeneity of labor markets.Based on the micro-data from the staff file of Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank in the 1930s,this paper examines the impact of modern education on bank employees’wages and its mechanisms.The empirical results show that:(1)Most levels of modern education have a significant wage premium over traditional education,and people with higher levels of education tend to earn higher income levels.After taking into account factors such as work location,senior hometown relations and heterogeneity in individual abilities,the above conclusions remain robust.(2)The wage premium of modern education comes primarily from the improvement of work skills,rather than from a signaling effect.(3)Since more educated employees have both higher working capacity and a greater ability to adapt to new jobs,the accumulation of human capital comes on the one hand from the improvement of work skills promoted by education,and on the other hand from the accumulation of actual work experience,thereby achieving a higher wage premium.The main contributions of this paper are as follows:(1)It distinguishes the skill effect and the signaling effect of education,suggesting that the wage premium comes mainly from the accumulation of education and human capital,rather than from the heterogeneity of individual workers’capabilities.(2)It provides an empirical case study of wage returns to education in modern societies,expanding and enriching the micro-mechanism of the role of Western-style education in modern economic development,and providing a micro-perspective for understanding the role of human capital in the economic transformation and development of modern China.Based on the research findings,this paper proposes the following policy recommendations:Firstly,great importance should be attached to basic education at all levels,and the comprehensive capacity of human capital should be developed through general education.Secondly,vocational education and training should be continuously strengthened,so that workers can adapt to work in more sectors and accumulate skills through“learning by doing”.Thirdly,we should focus on both developing human resources and promoting the mobility of human resources between regions and sectors,increase the accumulation of laborers’work experience,and eliminate policies that may impede the mobilization and circulation of human resources.