高等教育赋能中国乡村振兴:理论机制与经验证据

Higher Education Enables Rural Revitalization in China Theoretical Mechanisms and Empirical Evidence

高等教育服务乡村振兴是新时代我国妥善解决“三农”问题的必然选择,也是实现社会主义现代化的应有之义。本文在理论阐释高等教育赋能乡村振兴作用机制的基础上,从产业兴旺、生态宜居、乡风文明、治理有效、生活富裕五个维度构建乡村振兴综合评价指数,并利用2012—2021年中国省级面板数据,实证检验高等教育对乡村振兴的影响效应及其机制。研究发现,高等教育对乡村振兴有显著促进作用,高等教育水平每增加1个单位,可以使乡村振兴指数提高1062%。在经过内生性问题处理和一系列稳健性检验后,上述结论依然成立。机制分析表明,高等教育对乡村振兴的影响主要是通过人力资本效应、技术创新效应和文化传承效应三种传导机制实现。进一步异质性检验发现,高等教育对乡村振兴的影响效应具有明显的异质性特征,主要存在于东中部地区和教育资源相对富裕地区。本文研究为更好赋能中国乡村振兴、扎实推进共同富裕提供了有益的政策启示。

Higher education serving rural revitalization is an inevitable choice for China to properly solve the“three rural”issues in the new era,and it is also an essential part of achieving socialist modernization.On the basis of theoretical explanation of the mechanism by which higher education empowers rural revitalization,this article constructs a comprehensive measurement index for rural revitalization from five dimensions:Industrial prosperity,livable ecology,civilized rural culture,effective governance,and affluent living.Using panel data at the provincial level in China from 2012 to 2021,the article empirically tests the impact and mechanism of higher education on rural revitalization.Research has found that higher education has a significant promoting effect on rural revitalization,with each increase of one unit in higher education level increasing the rural revitalization index by 10.62%.After dealing with endogeneity issues and conducting a series of robustness tests,the above conclusion still holds.Mechanism analysis shows that the impact of higher education on rural revitalization is mainly achieved through three transmission mechanisms:Human capital effect,technological innovation effect,and cultural inheritance effect.Further heterogeneity testing shows that the impact of higher education on rural revitalization has obvious heterogeneity characteristics,mainly existing in the eastern and central regions and relatively affluent areas of educational resources.This study provides useful policy insights for better empowering rural revitalization in China and solidly promoting common prosperity.