农村地区彩礼价格上升对子女教育投资的影响分析——基于性别的研究视角

An Analysis of the Impact of Rising Bride-price on Children’s Education Investment in Rural Areas:A Gender Perspective

近年来,中国农村地区彩礼价格不断提高,给贫困家庭造成了不少负担。一方面,彩礼价格的提高有可能压缩家庭的当期支出,进而使家庭减少教育支出。另一方面,家庭有可能通过提高子女的教育投资来缓解未来的彩礼压力或者获得更高的彩礼收入。本文构建了一个两期代际交叠模型,研究彩礼价格上涨对农村家庭子女教育投资支出的影响。模型推演发现,对于独生子女家庭和同性别子女家庭,彩礼价格上升增加了家庭对女孩的教育支出,而对男孩教育支出的影响不确定。本文使用中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)面板数据对上述结论进行了实证检验,发现平均彩礼价格的上升会使得家庭增加对男孩和女孩的教育投资,并且对女孩的影响更大。因此,本文建议在农村贫困地区实施移风易俗等政策降低彩礼水平的同时,要配合实施针对农村贫困家庭的教育帮扶政策,避免因彩礼价格下降对农村地区青少年特别是女孩的人力资本积累产生负面影响。

In recent years,the increase of bride-price in rural China has placed a lot of burden on poor families.On the one hand,bride-price increase has the potential to squeeze families’current expenditure,which in turn makes families spend less on children’s education.On the other hand,it is possible for families to alleviate future bride-price pressure or obtain higher bride-price income by increasing their investment in children’s education.This paper constructs a two-period intergenerational overlap model to study the impact of bride-price increase on children’s education investment among rural families.It finds that,for one-child families and families with same-gender children,the increase in bride-price leads to an increase in education investment for girls,while the effect on boys is uncertain.This paper empirically tests these findings using panel data from the China Family Panel Studies(CFPS),and finds that an increase in the average bride-price causes families to increase education investment of both boys and girls,and the effect is greater for girls.Therefore,this paper suggests that the implementation of policies such as changing customs to reduce the bride-price level in poor rural areas should be accompanied with educational support policies for poor rural families to avoid the negative impact on the human capital accumulation of adolescents,especially girls,in rural areas.