逃离抑或竞争:地权稳定性对农民教育投资的影响

Flee or Compete:The Impact of Land Rights Stability on Farmers’Education Investment

土地作为最重要的农业生产资料,其分配方式及其稳定性状态直接决定了农民的生计和对未来生活的预期。然而,中国农村地权的模糊性和不稳定性曾一度长期存在,既抑制农民生产稳定性预期的形成,也催生出农民的地权博弈策略。本文研究发现,长期地权不稳定的地区,农民更为认同“读书改变命运”,或通过提升人力资本以“逃离”不稳定的生存环境,或通过教育信号显示以强化家庭地权竞争力量。利用中国劳动力动态调查数据的估计结果表明,地权稳定性不足的村庄农户具有更高的教育投资水平、受教育年限更长,且更不认同“读书无用论”;地权不稳定作为历史遗产会形塑“读书重教”的集体意识。本文强调,中国农村家庭的教育投资隐含着深刻的产权经济学逻辑。

As the most important means of agricultural production,land distribution mode and its stable state directly determine farmers’livelihood and future life expectations.However,the fuzziness and instability of rural land rights existed for a long time in China,which not only inhibited the formation of farmers’production stability expectation,but also gave birth to farmers’land rights game strategy.This study finds that in areas with long-term land rights instability,farmers are more likely to agree that“reading can change the fate”,or to“escape”from the unstable living environment by improving human capital,or to strengthen the family land rights competition through education signals.The estimation results based on the survey data of China’s labor dynamics show that farmers in villages with less stable land rights have higher education investment level,longer education years,and less agree with the“useless study”theory.As a historical legacy,the unstable land rights will shape the collective consciousness of“reading and teaching”.This paper emphasizes that the educational investment of Chinese rural families implies a profound economic logic of property rights.