撤点并校与学龄人口城镇化:“第一步”效应

The Compulsory School Merger Program and School-Age Population's Urbanization:The First-Step Effect

本文利用人口抽样调查数据分析义务教育学校布局调整(即"撤点并校")政策对于农村地区6-12周岁学龄人口城镇化进程的影响。采用地区小学数量的减少速度作为撤点并校政策强度的代理变量,我们发现,整体上撤点并校政策推进了学龄人口的城镇化进程,但是这种效果在省份之间存在较大差异。合理的撤并整合教育资源提高了农户的教育净回报;不合理的撤并降低了当地教育净回报,促使农户离开户籍所在地,间接推进了城镇化进程。

This paper studies the impact of the compulsory school merger program on the school-age(6-12 years old)population’s urbanization in rural China using the sample of Census 2005.We define the first-step effect as follows:(1)it is the first-step for the household’s urbanization while the rural residents migrate from the registered residential location;(2)it is the first-step for the rural school-age children’s urbanization while they grow up in the urban area.Using the decline ratio of the number of primary schools in prefecture level as a proxy for the compulsory school merger program,we find that the compulsory school merger program increased the migration of the rural residents over the country.Thus,it confirms the first-step effect;however,the effects vary across provinces.