基础教育差异对农村地区收入分配的影响——异质性教育收益视角的解释

The Impact of Differentiated Basic Education on the Income Distribution in Rural China——An Explanation From the Perspective of Heterogeneity in Returns to Education

从我国农村基础教育的扩展与分化两方面考察基础教育差异对农村地区收入分配的影响,并对教育扩展与教育分化的交互机制进行了评估。结果表明,农村基础教育的扩展有助于缓解收入差距,但这种效应正逐渐减弱;由于教育收益率在不同群体之间存在差别,2003—2012年我国农村家庭在基础教育与劳动力市场的分流,事实上缩小了各教育级别上农民收入差距;教育分化对收入分配的影响随着基础教育的扩展而逐渐增强。这意味着,如果新增的低收入家庭孩子接受了更高年限/级别的教育,但这一正规教育所获得的收益低于高收入家庭,那么这种教育分化的改善反而会恶化收入差距,且这种影响随着当地总体教育水平的提升而加重。研究的回归结果表明,农村教育政策的制定要同时考虑不同群体之间接受基础教育的机会与教育质量的均等,同时还应结合劳动力市场的结构性需求搭建多层次教育供给体系,鼓励并引导教育分流。

This paper,based on basic education expansion and inequality in rural China,aims to explore the impact of differentiated basic education on the income distribution in rural China,and the interactions between education expansion and inequality. The results show the following:Basic education expansion in rural areas helps to alleviate the income gap,but to a gradually weakened extent;due to the difference in returns to education among different groups,the divergence of rural families in both basic education and the labor market over the past decade has actually alleviated their income gaps at various levels of education;and the impact of education inequality on income distribution increases with the expansion of basic education. This indicates that if low-income families let the additional children receive longer-time or higher-level education but profit less than high-income families,this will worsen the income gap in spite of less education inequality,especially when the overall local education is improved. Therefore,policymakers should consider the opportunities for different groups to receive basic education and the equality of education quality,build a system of multi-level education supply based on the structural demand of the labor market,and encourage and guide the divergence of education.