“教育致贫”及其后果：转轨时期中国低收入家庭的教育困境

【作者】 谷宏伟；

【导师】 张凤林；

【作者基本信息】 东北财经大学 ， 西方经济学， 2007， 博士

【摘要】 经验表明，转轨国家一些领域的改革非常容易出现这样的问题：既丧失了传统计划经济的公平，又没有获得市场经济的效率。时下的中国，教育和医疗都是最吸引人们眼球的热点问题，因为这两个领域的改革与我们的日常生活息息相关，问题又层出不穷。比如，最近教育领域也产生了类似于“因病致贫”的“因学致贫”的问题。多年来，城、乡居民家庭在教育上的支出逐年增加，截止到2005年，中国农村居民家庭的文教娱乐支出占总支出比重的11.6％，而衣、食、住三项必需的消费支出就用去了全部支出的65.8％。也就是说，在满足了基本的生活需要之后，余下有近一半的支出都用在了教育上，而在20年前，这项支出的比重只有6.3％(中国农村住户调查年鉴，2006)。进而，在最近新华网与《经济参考报》的一项联合调查中，教育收费在人们关注的焦点问题中居于首位。于是，随着教育费用的不断增加，低收入家庭“因教致贫”的现象屡见不鲜，零点调查和指标数据共同发布的《2005年中国居民生活质量指数研究报告》显示：教育花费成为城、乡居民致贫的首要原因。特别是农村贫困家庭，教育花费是他们的头号家庭开支，一个学生小学六年大概要1～3万不等，中学六年3～6万不等，大学四年4～10万不等，这笔开支对于一个低收入尤其是贫困家庭而言，足以令其倾家荡产。在城、乡贫困人群中，均有43％～46％的人分别提到贫困的原因是“家里要供孩子读书”；《中国教育报》也在一份报道中肯定了教育花费成为致贫首要原因的说法，在调查中，有40％～50％的人提到家里穷是因为“家里有孩子要读书”。吉林省政府对该省某镇高中进行的一项抽样调查显示，竟有28.7％的学生“害怕升入大学”，原因是“家庭负担不起上大学的费用”(中国青年报，2005，5，11)。而另一项针对11个省的16所中学中有子女即将参加高考的家庭的调查结果也表明，82.3％的贫困高考生其家庭贫困的主要原因是教育支出大，超过2／3的家庭入不敷出(中国青年报，2006，7，17)。可以说，对我国落后地区的家庭而言，教育已经超过疾病成为致贫的最重要因素。但是，学费上涨导致的“因学致贫”只是本文“教育致贫”的一种，这只是一种暂时的贫困，只要子女毕业后能够找到好的工作，教育在经济上仍然是一笔有利可图的投资，家庭忍受暂时的贫困也是值得的。“教育致贫”的另一种形式是，教育作为一种人力资本投资，一旦学生毕业之后所获得的工资不足以补偿前期所支付的各种成本(包括直接成本和机会成本)，那么低收入家庭在子女受教育期间所承受的暂时贫困就会长期化。出现这种现象的原因有：公共投资不足、私人家庭教育费用上涨、高校扩招、教育质量不高、劳动力市场流动障碍等因素，而问题出现的背景是中国贫富差距在逐渐拉大，对高收入家庭微不足道的教育费用，低收入家庭却无力承担。此外，通过对中国居民家庭收入的五等分或者十等分，我们有理由相信，遇到“教育致贫”问题的家庭是占有相当比重的，这些人群包括农村地区的大部分家庭以及城市的边缘群体，比如下岗失业或者外来务工人员的家庭。还可以从一个侧面证明问题的普遍性，如果我们用google按关键词“因教致贫”搜索一下，共有13200篇文章提到，“教育致贫”则有945000篇。而在一年半以前本文写作之初，在网站上搜索发现这还是一个比较生僻的字眼，当时极少被人提及。现有的经济理论强调教育对经济增长和个人收入的积极作用。在20世纪60年代“人力资本革命”以来，教育被看成是一种对人的投资，在宏观上，Danison、Jorgensen等人对经济增长的因素加以分解，用教育来解释经济增长中无法说明的“残差”，微观上，Becker、Mincer等人用教育来解释个人收入分配上的差异，教育与个人收入之间是正相关的，而且教育的收益率也往往高于一般实物投资的收益率。基于此，教育就成了落后国家和贫困家庭摆脱贫困的灵丹妙药。本文的分析间接地表明了教育对个人收入提高的作用是有条件的，如果没有良好的政府政策和市场环境，教育不但不能起到脱贫致富的作用，甚至在一定程度上会强化已有的贫富差距。同“教育致贫”相关的另一个问题是儿童的失学和童工，在落后的农村地区，中等教育的收益率极低，所以贫困家庭对教育的选择是不连续的，具体而言，如果孩子学习好，家庭就会想办法为教育融资，助其读完大学；反之，如果学习成绩不好，家长一旦看到上大学无望的话，甚至连中学也不会读完。对于传统农业生产而言，简单的读、写、计算仅小学教育就够了，中学阶段的很多学习内容都用不上(蒋中一等，2002；2003)。农民是理性的，教育上的这种二元选择的结果是，中国有相当数量的儿童在义务教育阶段失学沦为童工，中国是个有童工劳动的国家，虽然比重不高，但数量不少。本文将采用由Mincer、Schultz和Becker等人发展起来的人力资本理论作为基本的分析方法，把学校教育看作是一种重要的投资行为，是对人的投资。学校是“专门从事教育生产的机构”(Becker，1964)，是人力资本的加工厂，学校教育是一种“时间密集型”的生产活动(张风林，2006，p．159)。对学校教育的分析也需从成本和收益的角度出发。另外，作为补充，还会从Spence(1974)的劳动力市场的“信号理论”出发，分析高等教育扩张的可能后果——教育信号投资过度所导致的“教育致贫”问题。本文是以家庭而不是受教育者本人作为基本的分析单位的，并不打算对家庭内部的财富转移关系、分工和博弈作进一步的探讨。文章的中心是研究当前转轨阶段中国低收入家庭在教育上遇到的“教育致贫”问题以及由此可能引起的后果。如前所述，“教育致贫”有两种情况，低收入家庭在子女学校教育阶段所承受的暂时贫困，以及将来人力资本投资失败造成的暂时贫困长期化。失学和童工则是贫困家庭对“教育致贫”问题所作的反应之一，也算是“教育致贫”的直接后果。基于这样的研究思路，结构安排如下：第一章“引言”提出本文研究的问题以及思路安排；第二章，详细界定了教育致贫的涵义、类型、特点和发生的范围，并利用数据和调查资料对“教育致贫”的事实加以描述；第三章，详细介绍本文所采用的分析方法——人力资本理论，包括理论的演变、内涵、主要内容以及最新的进展；第四章在人力资本理论的框架下系统地论述当前低收入家庭的“教育致贫”问题，是本文的核心内容；第五章，从信号理论的角度对高校扩张可能引发的“教育致贫”等问题加以论述，其实质是上一章内容的一个必要的补充；第六章，描述了低收入家庭在教育上面临的困境，然后从中等教育的收益特性出发分析了失学和童工问题，本文认为失学和童工也是贫困家庭理性选择的结果；第七章是结论部分，包括对研究的总结，尝试性地提出政策上的建议，并指出本文的不足以及下一步研究的方向。本文的基本结论是，由于一些政策和市场方面的因素，当前中国有相当一部份低收入家庭面临着“教育致贫”的问题，教育不再是家庭摆脱贫困的万能药，反而会强化已有的贫富差距，也就是说，教育经济作用的发挥是有条件的，而这些必要的政策和市场条件常常被忽视。“教育致贫”的一个后果是，贫苦家庭受迫于高昂的教育成本，会在子女成绩不好的情况下主动终止人力资本投资，进而出现辍学和童工问题。从经济的角度看，无论“教育过度(overeducation)”还是“教育不足(undereducation)”都是无效率的。对发展中的中国而言，如果要利用教育来摆脱贫穷和落后的状态，尤其要注意这一点。另外，“教育致贫”是我国当前转轨阶段的特有现象，并非一国教育发展的必然阶段，也不是其他国家教育发展曾经面临的问题。本文有价值和创新的地方主要体现在：通过对统计数据进行分析以及一次入户调查的结果来证实“教育致贫”的存在；对“教育致贫”问题的进行系统论证，分析了问题产生的原因，表明教育经济功能的发挥是有条件的；通过对家庭承受的教育费用进行跨国比较和实证分析，充分证明了中国家庭所承担的学费尤其是教育总支出过高，超出相当一部分低收入家庭的承受能力；介绍了当前低收入家庭在家育上的两难选择，儿童失学和童工是“教育致贫”的结果，鉴于国内对童工问题的研究基本处于空白阶段，本文对有关童工的文献进行了简单地归纳；提出了用中等教育收益不足来解释童工的新视角，相信这一观察视角对大部分发展中国家的童工问题都是具有解释力的。更多还原

【Abstract】 It is showed that there have been problems with the economic reform in some areas in the countries of transition economy, such as ignorance of fair competition that had been stressed upon in the central planned economy and failure to obtain the efficiency of market economy.Education and medical treatment have become the hot issues in our country, because the reform in these two regions is closely related with people’s daily life, at the same time various problems are emerging one after another. For example, education domain recently presents the issue of "poverty caused by schooling", which is similar to "poverty caused by diseases". For over twenty years, the education expenditure in both rural and urban areas has steadily been increasing year on year. Up to 2005, spending on culture-education-and-entertainment in china accounts for 11.6% of the total household expenditure while spending on necessities such as food, clothing and housing takes up about 65.8% of the total. Namely, paying off for the necessities the average household has to invest more than half of the remaining income in education. In contrast with twenty years ago, the spending on education only accounts for 6.3%(Yearbook of China’s Rural Household Survey, 2006).. Moreover, in a joint survey initiated by Xinhuanet and Economy Reference Newspaper, it is shows that the problem of education charging has become the priority concern of the people.With the increasing tuition, the problem of "poverty caused by schooling" in low-income household appears more and more serious. A research report about china’s residential life quality index in 2005, jointly released by Zero Investigation and Index Data, indicates that education expenditure has become a chief cause for poverty of rural and urban residents. Especially, rural poverty stricken household can hardly afford education tuitions. it costs a household from RMB10,000 to RMB30,000 to support a child of 6-year schooling in a primary school, RMB30,000 to RMB60,000, that of another 6-year schooling from a junior to a senior school, 3 years in each, and from RMB40,000 to RMB100,000 for a 4-year college education.The expenditure is far high beyond a poor family’s total savings making them broke.[0] My survey shows that 43% of the interviewees in the cities think their poverty is caused by education costs of their children while 46% of those do in the rural areas.China Education Daily also reported that education expenditure was the primary reason for the poverty of urban and rural residents. 40%-50% of people mentioned that their families were doomed to be poor due to their children’s education. Especially for rural families, education expenditure is their number one household expenses; Jilin province government conducted a sample survey at a school in a town, the results showed that 28.7% of the students are "afraid of going to university." The reason was "the family could not afford the cost of schooling" (China Youth Daily, 2005-5-11). Another survey of some students in 16 secondary schools across 11 provinces, who would take the college entrance examination, comes out with the similar result that 82.3% of their families believed that higher education spending was the main reason for leading their families to poverty; at the same time more than two-thirds of the families could not make both ends meet (China Youth Daily, 2006-7-17). It can be assumed that as for families in the backward areas, education has substituted disease becoming the most important factor for poverty.However, the problem of "poverty caused by schooling" resulting from increasing intuitions is only one phenomenon of "poverty caused by schooling" in this thesis. The former is only a transient poverty. If children can find a good job after graduation, education is still an economically lucrative investment in human capital. It is worthwhile for families to put up with poverty temporarily. Another form of "poverty caused by education" presents that students earn the wage levels are insufficient to pay the costs of education (including the direct and opportunity costs) once they have graduated. So what the low-income families bore during their children’s education will transform a long-term transient poverty. And the reasons for this phenomenon include: inadequate public investment, increasing family education expenses, raising college enrolment, low quality of education and labor market mobile barriers etc. Of course, the background of this problem is China’s gradual widening gap between rich and poor. The education expenditure is minimal cost for high-income families, but is heavy burden for low-income families to afford. We have reason to believe that significant proportion of low-income families had encountered the problem of "poverty caused by education". These groups include the majority of the households in rural areas and marginal urban population, for example, the families of laid-off unemployment or non-local workers.From another angle, the universality of this issue can also be proved. If we use "Google" searching by keyword "poverty caused by education", a total of 13,200 articles mentioned that. the "poverty caused by schooling", compared with 945,000 articles. While a year and a half before the beginning of this thesis, the keyword on the web site was relatively rarely mentioned.Existing economic theory stresses the positive role of education to economic growth and personal income. Since 1960s the revolution of human capital began, education was seen as an investment in human beings. At macro levels, Danison and Jorgensen et al decomposed the factors affecting economic growth, education was used to explain the inexplicable "residual" in economic growth. At micro levels, Becker and Mincer et al use education to explain the differences in the distribution of individual incomes. There is a positive correlation between education and individual income. Moreover, the rate of return to education is often higher than the general rate of return to physical investment. For this reason, education has become a panacea for poor families in backward countries out of poverty.The analysis in this thesis indirectly shows that the role of education enhancing personal income is conditional. If there is no good government policy and market environment, shaking off poverty through education will become impossible, or even to some extent it will strengthen the existing gap between rich and poor.Another problem related with "poverty caused by schooling" is children drop-outs and child labor. In backward rural areas, the rate of return to secondary education is very low, so the choice of education by poor families is not continuous. In particular, if children learn well, the families can find ways to finance education and help them finish higher education; conversely, if the children do poorly in learning, so as their parents see no hope of going to college, they will not be financed to finish high school. For the traditional agricultural production, the simple skill of reading, writing and calculating is enough. A lot of learning contents in high school are relative useless (Jiang Zhongyi et al, 2002; 2003). The farmers are rational. So the dual choice in education results that China is also a country employing child labor; although it is not a high proportion, but a large amount.The analytical method in this thesis adopt the human capital theory developed by Mincer, Schultz and Becker et al, in which school education is viewed as an important investment to human beings. Schools are special institutions engaging in educational production (Becker, 1964), and processing factory of human capital. School education is a kind of "time-intensive" product activities (Zhang Fenglin, 2006, p.159). The analysis of school education is also required from the perspective of costs and benefits.The analysis in this paper is based on the family as the basic unit of analysis, but not on educatee, and this paper does not intend to explore following questions for further examination, such as inter-family wealth transfer, division of labor and games. The focus of this article is to examine, against the current economic transformation background, the dilemma faced by of low-income families in education: "poverty caused by schooling" and child labor. As aforementioned, the issue of "poverty caused by schooling" has two types: one is the transient poverty born by low-income families during schooling, the other is long-term poverty for investment failure in human capital. The issue of child labor is the response to "poverty caused by schooling" by poor families, is also a direct consequence of it.Based on this research clue, the thesis is structured as follows:Chapter 1 is the introduction, putting forward the central issues and the frame of this paper;Chapter 2 defines the concept of "poverty caused by schooling", the type, characteristics and the scope. It also uses the data and survey to confirm the "education caused by schooling" to be the facts;Chapter 3 introduces adopted analysis methods in detail—such as human capital theory, including its evolution, meaning, main contents and the latest developments.Chapter 4 is the core of this treatise, describing the issue of "poverty caused by schooling" in current low-income families under the human capital theory frame;Chapter 5 from the perspective of "signaling theory" to explain the problem "education caused buy schooling" and other issues, it is a necessary complement to the previous chapter;Then the analysis of the problem of child labor proceeds in chapter 6. We believed that this is the inevitable result of rational behaviors of poor families;At last Chapter 7 concludes the thesis with a summary of the issues, some policy proposals, the paper’s shortages and the future research directions.In this paper, the basic conclusion is that because of some policies and market factors, a considerable part of low-income families in China at present is faced with the problem of "poverty caused by schooling". Education is no longer a panacea helping families out of poverty, but increase the gap between rich and poor. Namely, education economic role works well depending on some conditions. But these necessary policies and market conditions are often neglected. One of the consequences of "poverty caused by schooling" is the following fact: because poor families are forced to afford high cost for schooling, when their children will not do well in their learning, they will initiatively terminate the investment in human capital, then bringing the issue of child labor.Surveying education from the point view of economy, either "overeducation" or "undereducation" is inefficient. To developing China, using education to get rid of poverty and backwardness of the state, it should be paid particular attention to this point. In addition, the "poverty caused by schooling" is a phenomenon unique to the current phase of the transition, but not an inevitable stage in the development of a country’s education. Other countries do not have the similar problems during the development of their education.This paper’s contributions and innovations are:Firstly, based on the analysis of the statistical data and a household interview results, we confirm the existence of the "poverty caused by schooling" issue;Secondly, through elaborating the issue of "poverty caused by schooling", we analyze the reasons of the problem. The results indicate that the economic function of education is conditionally working;Thirdly, through international comparison and empirical analysis of the education expenditure born by families, we have fully proved the schooling intuitions afforded by Chinese families are over high, particularly total expenditure on education far beyond the affordability of a considerable number of low-income families;The last but not the least, the current dilemma of education faced by low-income families is introduced. Children drop-outs and child labor are the results of "poverty caused by schooling". Given the domestic research about the problem of child labor is still at the blank stage, we survey interrelated literature; and put forward a new perspective about insufficient earnings of secondary education to explaining the phenomenon of child labor. And this theory is applied to the analysis of the problem of child labor in China. We believe that this angle of view is powerful for explaining the problems of child labor in majority of developing countries.更多还原