教育何以强国? ——教育支出不均衡与区域创新的视角-清华大学教育研究

文章信息/Info

Title:: How Can Education Strengthen a Nation? A Study on the Impact of Unequal Education Expenditure on Regional Innovation

Author(s):: LI Feng-liang DING Yang-yang; School of Education, Tsinghua University

Keywords:: per capita fiscal expenditure on education; equity; regional innovation; Gini coefficient; leading country in education

摘要:: 本文聚焦教育支出均衡性对区域创新的影响机制研究。从教育公平的横向维度切入,基于2003-2021年中国20个省级行政区的面板数据,利用地级市人均财政性教育支出基尼系数测度教育不均衡指数,实证分析教育支出不均衡对区域创新的影响及作用机制。研究发现,教育支出不均衡与区域创新之间存在显著的倒U型关系,适度的不均衡可以促进创新,过度则会抑制创新,该结论在使用工具变量法进行内生性处理后依然成立;劳动力人力资本总量和科技人力资本在其中发挥中介作用;且该倒U型作用具有区域异质性,仅在东部及高经济发展地区显著。在推动教育强国建设过程中,应坚持以人力资本积累为核心导向,统筹优化教育资源配置结构,推动分区分类施策,实现教育公平与区域创新能力的协同提升。

Abstract:: This study investigates the impact mechanism of educational expenditure equity on regional innovation. Anchored in the horizontal dimension of educational equity, the paper conducts an empirical analysis based on panel data from 20 provincial-level regions in China from 2003 to 2021. The Gini coefficient of per capita public educational expenditure at the prefecture level is employed to construct the educational inequality index. The results reveal a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between educational expenditure inequality and regional innovation, indicating that moderate inequality can foster innovation, whereas excessive inequality suppresses it. This conclusion remains robust after addressing endogeneity using an instrumental variable approach. Further analysis confirms that labor human capital and scientific human capital both play significant mediating roles. Moreover, this inverted U-shaped effect exhibits notable regional heterogeneity, being significant only in the eastern region and in areas with high levels of economic development. The findings suggest that, in advancing the goal of becoming an education power, policymakers should adopt a human capital accumulation-oriented approach, optimize the structure of educational resource allocation, and implement region-specific and category-specific policies, so as to achieve the synergistic enhancement of educational equity and regional innovation capacity.