個人能力差異、教育品質與教育成就、和教育品質報酬之研究

Abstract

教育為人力資本投資(human capital accumulation)的重要管道。透過教育累積知識 (knowledge)和技能(skills)，不但能提高個人生產力，也有助於技術的引進和研發創新，帶動國內產業結構的升級和改善，從而提高國家的競爭力。因此研究教育投資的決策及其效益更加顯得重要。影響教育的投資包括個人特質、家庭的屬性和政府的政策。教育投資除了教育程度數量的增加外，學校教育品質的提升亦攸關個人的教育成就及其在勞動市場的表現。為徹底了解教育投資的本質和內涵，有必要進一步分析教育品質的影響。其中主要問題包括教育品質的認定，個人能力是否影響進入甚麼樣品質的學校？即個人能力和學校品質是否為配對關係?即能力好的學生配上品質好的學校。而高中學校的品質是否影響進入甚麼樣品質的大學及影響往後的教育成就？若教育品質影響教育成就，則教育品質的報酬率為何？是否值得念明星學校？教育品質是否隨時間而收斂？且其邊際報酬率是否亦為遞減？教育數量和教育品質是否存在抵換關係(quantity and quality trade-off)？兩者的報酬率有何差異？教育品質對哪些族群的影響最為顯著？針對以上一系列相關教育品質問題，國內尚缺乏系統性研究，故本研究將以三年期時間針對不同的教育品質相關議題分別提出三個子計畫。第一年子計畫為個人能力vs. 教育品質：能力與學校選擇是否存在配對關係及其對未來教育成就的影響。第二年子計畫為高中學校品質是否影響學生選擇就讀何種品質的大學:明星學校的迷思？第三年計畫為學校品質的報酬率(return to school quality)估計：就讀明星大學究竟值多少？

Education is an important channel for human capital accumulation as education enhances knowledge and skill formation, which increase individual’s productivity, promote technology transfer and innovation, upgrade domestic production structure, and enhance a country’s competitiveness in the international market. Factors influencing education decision include personal characteristics, family background, and government policy. Most importantly, investment in education not only has to do with increases in the years of school but also concern about quality of schooling, which affects ultimate education achievement and earnings in the labor market. This research focuses on various issues related to school quality. It contains identification of school quality, is there a match relationship between individual’s ability and school quality?, Does high school quality influences the probability of entering what kind of quality of colleges and universities and then the outcome in the labor market?, what is the return on school quality?, does it pay for entering elite universities?, is there an trade-off between quantity of education and quality of education and what remarkable differences between them?, what kind of group most heavily affected by the school quality in their labor market performance? We propose a three-year research project to tackle and try to answer the above mentioned questions. The first-year project is individual’s ability vs. school quality: is there a match process between ability and school quality and its effect on educational achievement. The second-year project is do high school quality affect what kind of university you are going to: the math of the elite high schools? Finally, the third-year project is the estimation of return to school quality: does it pay for entering the elite universities?