知识经济中高等教育扩张是否促进了收人分配平等化──来自金砖国家的经验

Does Expanding Higher Education Equalize Income Distribution inthe Knowledge Economy? The Case of The Bric Countries

大家普遏认为, 教育机会扩张有助于促进社会流动和收入平等 以高等教育为例, 随着高等教育扩张, 低收入家庭的资优生更有可能上大学并完成大学教育,从而能够竞争有较高学位要求的高薪工作, 这理应增加他们经济地位向上流动的机会 近年来, 一些国际学者针时这一现象展开研究, 以期探讨教育扩张是否有助于促进收入平等 本研究的结果表明, 高等教育入学规模的大幅度扩张对促进收入分配平等的作用徽乎其微,其原因主要在于劳动力市场上大学毕业生的规模虽然增加, 但是其收益却在持续增长

A widely held belief about the benefits of expanding access to education is that greater access produces greater social mobility and income equality. In the case of higher education, as enrollments expand, bright youth from lower income families are more likely to enter and complete university. In theory, this should increase their chances to move upward economically by making them more able to compete for higher paying jobs associated with a higher degree. Recent research by a group of international scholars studied this phenomenon empirically, trying to understand whether there is any positive impact of educational expansion on greater income equality. Our research suggests that greatly expanding university enrollment has little positive effect on equalizing earnings distribution. The main reason is that the payoffs for graduates have continued to rise despite many more higher education graduates entering the labor market.