解析台灣教育的效果與功能--- 個體與總體分析

Abstract

教育的根本在培養人。從個人角度來看，教育可提升個人的品格涵養，在現實生活中教育程度的高低除代表個人工作能力高低的指標外，更關係著個人的薪資所得收入與社會地位；另一方面，就整個國家而言，教育亦是影響經濟是否能持續成長及社會安定的原動力。OECD(1998) 認為教育已是影響一國永續發展和國際競爭力的關鍵能力。因此教育投資的報酬與功能做徹底的研究分析以做為個人投之教育之參考，並可做為政府教育政策擬定的重要參考依據。職是之故，本計畫將以三年時間分別由個體與總體層面深入的探析台灣教育投資的個體報酬、社會報酬與總體貢獻，並且分析探討教育作為社會階級流動重要工具之角色是否存在？其功能是否隨不同世代而增加亦或衰退？主要原因為何？第一年子計畫在考量各項偏誤下估計教育的真正私人報酬率，在異質性人力資本下的私人教育報酬率又為何。並且比較兩種不同模型和估計方法所估算之台灣私人教育報酬率究竟有何差異？其結果又代表何種經濟意義？和國外文獻相比又何異同？主要延伸的政策意涵為何？第二年子計畫進一步估計台灣教育投資的社會報酬率(social rate of return)，以瞭解是否存在教育的外溢效果？若有，主要存在什麼樣的總體層面(aggregate level)？社會報酬率和私人報酬率的比較，何種較為重要？以生產函數所推導的成長回歸式估算台灣教育投資對經濟產出的影響以及對長期成長的貢獻，比較教育水平效果與成長效果之大小。另外，在允許跨國間的知識外溢下，以快速崛起的亞洲經濟體系之跨國資料，檢測教育對一國總體經濟成長的影響，並比較估計結果和目前經濟成長實証文獻之異同。第三年子計畫延伸探討教育的跨代移轉(intergenerational transfer)效果，特別是社會階級的流動(social mobility)，這項功能自然也會影響到一國的所得分配，因此有必要瞭解教育與社會階級流動的關係。主要研究內容包括：利用家庭背景與個人特質分析代間的階層流動，社會階級來源(origin of social class)對於教育投資的選擇教育投資結果，及教育投資又如何影響社會階級的歸層(destination of social class)，並探討教育是否存在顯著的影響社會階層流動的功能，以及此項功能隨時空環境的轉變，是否增強抑或轉弱？而其背後的原因究竟為何？本計畫研究結果將有助於瞭解教育投資決策的本質和教育對所得和一國生產效率及其對所得分配所產生的影響。對於台灣未來教育政策之擬定，當有重要的參考價值。

The aim of education is to cultivate people』s abilities. Individually, education enhances people』s talents and productivity which in turns increases one』s wages and social status. From a wider perspective, education is an important source of a country』s enduring economic growth, and provides for social cohesion and mobility. Therefore, education has long been an important subject for academic research and government policy formulation. This research project intends to investigate the effects of education in Taiwan from both micro and macro perspectives. The first year project is to estimate what is the 「true」 rate of return to education in Taiwan by considering all sorts of possible estimation biases, including endogeneity bias, ability bias, sorting and selection bias, and measurement bias. We will compare the results of IV approach to the traditional OLS estimates. Moreover, we also test the validity of homogenous human capital model vs. heterogeneous human capital model. The second year project is to estimate the social return to education and test for the possibility of spillover effect of education to see whether this externality is region-specific, industry-specific, or occupation-specific. As human capital may not only consider as an input but also affect the production efficiency directly, we further test the level as well as growth effects of education using production function approach. The third year project is to analyze the function of education as a tool for social mobility in Taiwan. As education is a family decision through intergenerational transfer, what is the relationship between the origins of social class to education and what is the relationship between education and the destinations of occupational choice and thus the destination of social class? Finally, what is the trend of education as the tool for social mobility? Does it become stronger or weaker over time? As a result, the effect of education on social mobility will also affect the income distribution of the economy over time. The results of this project will provide us a better and full understanding of the macro and macro effects of education in Taiwan, thus offer important implication for government』s educational policy in the future.