Human Capital Theory and Education Policy in Australia

The human capital model is the basis of neo-classical analysis of labour markets, education and economic growth. However, education policy in Australia has been influenced by models based on screening theory and public choice theory which yield the policy implication that reductions in education spending are generally desirable. In this paper, the competing models, and the evidence supporting them, are surveyed. It is concluded that the human capital model is strongly supported by the available evidence. The predictions of screening models are generally not supported by empirical tests, except where they coincide with those of the human capital model. The main evidence supporting the public choice model, derived from the literature on educational production functions, is shown to be deficient. The principal policy conclusion of the paper is that the negative effects of recent cuts in education spending will outweigh any benefits achieved through reductions in public debt.     

Nonlinear prices and welfare

The paper constructs a general equilibrium model of education which is distinguished by a ‘job ladder’ or sticky wages, combined with the assumption that educated labor is preferred over uneducated labor, i.e. per a ‘fairness-in-hiring’ rule, when there is excess demand for jobs at given wages. This theory of education, considered to be relevant to liberal arts education in underdeveloped countries, is contrasted with the human capital doctrine and the Arrow-Spence screening theories. The analysis is mainly focused on examining the social inefficiency properties of the educational process captured in the model constructed.     

Why do diplomas pay? An expanded Mincerian framework applied to Mexico

We compare four explanations for the value of diplomas, each of which has implications for unemployment and wage variation amongst graduates, most of which have not previously been tested for when seeking to explain the effects of diplomas. We test for these implications using a refined econometric framework, exploiting idiosyncrasies in Mexican labour market and educational institutions. Premiums in Mexico appear to result from diplomas tied to jobs with downwards rigid wages?–?an uncommon but simple explanation. The standard explanations, including screening, are not suggested by Mexican data. Our results illuminate how labour markets segmented by diplomas clear. This depends upon the nature of the labour market rigidities exactly as predicted by neoclassical theory.     

人力资本回报率变化与收入差距:“马太效应”及其政策含义

在分析人力资本回报率变化对收入差距影响的基础上,本文运用抽样调查数据估计了教育回报率及其随教育程度和收入水平的变化。结果发现,中国目前的教育回报率仍然不高,总体来看,每增加1年教育,个人收入会增加4.34%;同时,教育回报率还展现出随收入水平增加而增加的趋势,最高95%收入者的教育回报率是最低5%收入者的2倍多。教育回报率变化的“马太效应”意味着收入差距不断扩大是市场失败的产物,在这种情况下,要缩小收入差距,人力资本投资必须更多地向穷人倾斜。     

建立可持续发展机制,促进第二课堂的创新教育

第二课堂是高校创新教育体系的重要组成部分。建立第二课堂创新教育的可持续发展机制，应该融通第一课堂，形成创新教育合力；紧密结合第二课堂教学活动，建立创新教育的有效载体；努力打造高素质的指导教师队伍，凝聚创新教育力量；充分利用各种条件，积极营造良好的创新环境。     

政府教育支出效益的有限性分析及模型

我国政府教育支出与国民经济发展的速度不相适应 ,应该继续加大对教育的支出 ,改善支出结构。政府教育支出效率要受到政府财力、公共支出政策及国家教育政策目标的约束 ,但无论政府教育支出的效率如何 ,都会产生对社会公共教育需求和社会发展的积极影响。本文在确定政府教育支出所产生效益的指标后 ,用模型分析了政府增加教育支出的效益 ,并进行评价 ,认为当前我国政府应该调整教育政策目标 ,减少高等教育支出比例。     

Intergenerational transmission of educational attainment in Austria

Up to now, there exist several studies documenting the educational expansion in Austria in the 20th century but only few studies measureing the degree of persistence of educational attainment over generations. Furthermore, for Austria there are no internationally comparable persistence-measures of educational attainment available. This study aims to fill this gap and delivers key-measures for intergenerational persistence of educational attainment. The Austrian Household Survey on Housing Wealth includes information on socioeconomic characteristics of respondents and their parents. The results demonstrate strong persistence in educational attainment in Austria. Using uni- as well as multivariate econometric techniques and a Markovian approach we show that educational persistence decreased over time. Overall, Austria ranks third in terms of intergenerational educational attainment persistence among a number of european countries and the US. Our results therefore allow to question the significance of meritocratic values and equal opportunity for educational advancement in the Austrian society compared to other European countries and the USA.     

International Inequality and Convergence in Educational Attainment, 1960–1990

The paper examines the international inequality and convergence of educational attainment from 1960 to 1990. Despite the increasing trend in educational attainment, the gap in educational attainment between the developing countries and developed countries and that between males and females increased in the period. However, the relative dispersion of educational attainment—as measured by the coefficient of variation, the Gini coefficient, or the standard deviation of log average years of schooling—declined consistently during the period by either development or gender status. Decompositions of the Gini coefficient indicate that the development gap and the gender gap were the main components for world inequality in educational attainment in both 1960 and 1990. Educational attainment exhibited b - and s -convergence over the period.     

教育体系、收入分布与经济增长

本文使用一个包含物质资本与人力资本积累的世代交叠模型,研究不同的教育体系对经济增长的影响.我们发现,在公立教育体系下,最优的教育投资水平高于私立教育体系,收入差异也将会比在私立教育体系下下降得更快.因此,与私立教育体系相比,公立教育体系更有利于人力资本积累,在公立教育体系下一个国家将会有更高的经济增长率与更为平等的收入分布.     

法定支出政策下教育经费预算软约束分析

教育领域内的法定支出政策是对教育经费预算所作的硬性规定。对教育投入总量和增量的考察都表明,我国目前的教育经费呈现出预算软约束问题。法定支出政策本身模糊,"缩水式"的估算策略,过分强调投入而忽视绩效的管理模式,部门法规与《预算法》之间不协调都使得政策的效果大打折扣。在承认法定支出政策现实性的前提下需重新加以规范,并应建立绩效导向的教育经费预算管理模式,逐步拓宽教育资金的来源渠道。     

政府教育支出区域间不平衡的动态分析

本文认为 ,在对区域间政府教育支出发展不均衡的问题进行研究时 ,还要着重考虑两个方面 ,一是政府教育支出要受到政府财政规模的限制 ,二是政府教育支出要受制于国家教育政策的长期目标。本文从我国近年来总体的政府教育支出规模增长与教育需求的特点着手 ,用动态分析方法对近年来省区间政府教育支出规模变动所引起的受教育人口水平的变化过程进行了分析。文章认为 ,政府应先行调整经济发达地区的教育政策目标 ,继续加大对经济不发达地区的转移支付力度。同时 ,优化教育支出结构 ,提高政府教育支出效率 ,确保有限的政府教育资金都能用在教育事业发展上。     

Inequality in educational attainment and expectation: evidence from the China Family Panel Studies

This article studies educational inequalities in China by measuring both educational attainment and educational expectations using the 2010 nationally representative data from the China Family Panel Study. We find that educational inequalities have increased over the past several decades, and these inequalities are mainly reflected in the widening gaps in higher education between rural and urban residents. This is true for both educational attainment and expectations. Because parental education level is another significant factor affecting both educational attainment and expectations, imminent measures are needed to stop the vicious cycle of translating existing educational inequalities into larger inequalities in later generations.     

THE EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION: A MACROECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Between 1940 and 2000 there was a substantial increase in educational attainment in the United States. What caused this trend? We develop a model of human capital accumulation that features a nondegenerate distribution of educational attainment in the population. We use this framework to assess the quantitative contribution of technological progress and changes in life expectancy in explaining the evolution of educational attainment. The model implies an increase in average years of schooling of 24%, which is the increase observed in the data. We find that technological variables and in particular skill‐biased technical change represent the most important factors in accounting for the increase in educational attainment. The strong response of schooling to changes in income is informative about the potential role of educational policy and the impact of other trends affecting lifetime income.     

Adoption of Activity-Based Costing: A Survey of the Education Sector of Greece

The need to invest in education becomes evident during difficult economic periods. Nevertheless, the lack of sufficient financial resources leads educational institutes to form competitive cost strategies. Despite the increasing competition in the education sector, educational institutes usually refrain from using complex cost methods to improve their operations. In this study, we chose the activity-based costing (ABC) method to understand the reaction of educational institutes when they are confronted by the implementation of innovative cost methods. An institute willing to implement ABC should be capable of comprehending the associated operational adjustments. This study investigates the education sector’s potential in adapting to the ABC method to improve cost management. Additionally, factors that prevent educational institutes from making cost strategy reforms were also observed. Initially, we conducted semi-structured interviews of experts to develop our research instrument. The survey was then applied to 152 educational institutes located in the seven most populous regions of Greece. The findings of the hierarchical regression analysis indicate that educational institutes are not capable of accurately allocating costs and they lack specific data concerning overheads. However, the sector is more eager to implement sophisticated methods for increasing competitiveness than was anticipated.     

农村小学教育投人影响因素的实证研究——以河北省各县为例

本文从中国教育财政分权的视角探讨农村小学教育投入的影响因素，选取河北省2007年136个县的财政和教育数据，选择能全面反映财政能力与财政需要的一系列指标，考察这些指标与农村小学教育投入的相关性。研究结果表明，现行的财政转移支付政策并没有给予地方政府足够的激励，农村小学教育经费出现“挤出效应”，并就此提出相关的政策建议。     

On the optimal distribution of income and educational expenditure

This paper extends the work of Arrow and Bruno on the optimal distribution of educational expenditure. It examines educational policies when both education and income redistribution policies are simultaneously optimised. The analysis is undertaken for both fixed and variable labour supply. It is shown that these modifications lead to more regressive educational policies than suggested by Arrow and Bruno.     

Education on the cheap: The long-run effects of a free compulsory education reform in rural china

This paper evaluates the long-run effects of a free compulsory education reform in rural China on individuals’ educational attainment, cognitive achievement and health. We exploit the cross-province variation in the roll-out of the reform and apply a difference-in-differences strategy to identify the causal effects of the reform on the outcomes. We find that the reform exposure, measured by the number of semesters that an individual is supposed to be exposed to the free compulsory education, is positively associated with individuals’ educational attainment and cognitive achievement measured by math test scores in early adulthood. The reform effects on educational attainment become greater in the longer term. Moreover, the reform effect on educational attainment is stronger for individuals with less-educated fathers.     

发行义务教育公债是弥补中国义务教育经费投入不足问题的可行之策

教育经费投入不足一直是困扰中国教育事业发展的重大问题。随着中国义务教育免费政策的出台与实施,教育公平的推进和义务教育质量的提高,义务教育的建设与发展需要更多的资金投入。而中国逐年增长的教育经费很难满足目前义务教育的需要。因此,从义务教育经费的缺口分析入手,提出发行教育公债是解决义务教育经费投入不足的一种有效手段。     

Educational growth: An analysis of distribution among Brazilian municipalities

This study analyzes the distribution of education in terms of quality and quantity in Brazilian municipalities during the first decade of 2000 to investigate how educational improvement was distributed to municipalities with different levels of income and education. Given the considerable educational heterogeneity and the lack of studies at the municipal level, the aim is to contribute to this debate by (1) applying the pro‐poor growth measurement methodology to indicators of educational quantity and quality (2) using the Brazilian municipalities as units of analysis, and (3) conducting estimations using the Growth Incidence Curve. The results indicate that there was an improvement in the quantity and quality of education and that, on average, educational growth can be considered pro‐poor.     

财政可持续性与地方政府教育努力程度*

财政可持续性是影响政府教育努力程度的重要因素。本文基于2015—2019年城市面板数据测算了地方政府的财政可持续性指标，考察了财政可持续性对地方政府教育投入水平的影响。研究发现：我国大部分地级市都处于财政可持续状态，地方政府逐年上升的财政可持续性风险将降低政府教育努力程度，这一效应在东部地区和中部地区以及经济较发达城市尤为显著。