入学年龄对人力资本的长期影响--教育政策变迁带来的组群差异

Long-term Impact of School Starting Age on Human Capital--Group Differences Due to Education Policy Changes

随着教育部办公厅于2017年提出,将小学入学年龄标准由现行的“8月31日前满六周岁”调整为“由省级教育行政部门统筹确定”,入学年龄政策引发了社会各界的广泛关注。本文利用我国入学年龄要求中关于截止日期的规定,采用模糊断点方法(Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design,FRD)探究入学年龄对个人最终教育水平的长期影响。本研究发现,由于入学年龄较大的孩子会更早到达法定务工年龄,从而获得工作机会,因此他们最终所受到的教育年限比入学年龄较小的孩子短。然而随着九年义务教育制度的推进和大学扩招幅度的增加,我们观察到接近法定务工年龄的群体在校率上升,辍学率下降,入学年龄对长期教育水平的不利影响有所减弱。从这一角度,我国教育事业的改革促进了教育公平。

The General Office of the Ministry of Education had announced that in 2017,the primary school enrollment age will be adjusted from the current“6 years old before August 31”to“coordinated by the provincial education administrative department”.The school enrollment age policy has aroused widespread concern from whole society.In this paper,we use the Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design(FRD)to explore the long-term effects of school age on the final education level of individuals.The study found that because children with older school starting age reach the legal age and get job opportunities earlier,they end up with shorter years of schooling than children with younger school starting age.With the promotion of the nine-year compulsory education system and the increase in the number of university enrollment expansions,we observed that the school attendance rate of the group close to the legal working age increased,the dropout rate decreased,and the adverse effect of the school starting age on the long-term education level was weakened.From this perspective,the reform of education in China has promoted educational equity.