The Structure Of Educational Output, Resource Allocation And China's Economic Growth

Based on a review of related theories, we first construct theoretical economic growth models of the structure of educational output, technological progress, and industrial structure with the classic Cobb-Douglas production function. To investigate the causal relationships between the dependent variable (that is, economic growth) and the various independent variables in the theoretical model, we use some national economic time series data. The Chinese economy is then subdivided into a number of provincial-level cross section units; and combining time-series and cross-section data, we study the relationships between educational output structure, resource allocation and the economic growth, with panel data analysis. The thesis ends with the conclusions of the empirical analysis, as well as some policy recommendations.Following its research approach and its arrangement of contents, the thesis is divided into seven parts:Chapter I is Introduction, which mainly introduces the research background, the purpose of study, the main contents, and the arrangement of the structure. Innovations of this study are also discussed.Chapter II is a review of the related local and foreign studies. There are numerous factors that affect economic growth. In this chapter, in light of the purpose of this study, we primarily focus on four aspects. First is the human capital theory, and the impacts of education on economic growth; second is the contribution of technology to economic growth; third is the classification of general higher education and vocational education and their respective contribution to economic growth; and the last one is the relationship between industrial structure and economic growth.Chapter III is mainly about the construction of theoretical models. With the Cobb-Douglas production function, we consider the impacts of various types of education system (general higher education and vocational education) on the effective supply of human capital. The theoretical models also incorporate the level of technological progress, changes in industrial structure, as well as the status of resource allocation of productive capital and technology funding inputs. These provide a unique framework for analyzing the impacts of educational output structure on economic growth.Chapter IV provides analyses of the descriptive statistics of the development of general higher education and vocational education, the level of technological progress, and that upgrading of industrial structure. This chapter intuitively reflects the basic situation of our subject matters, and thus lays a foundation for the subsequent empirical analyses.Chapter V uses national economic time series to analyze the causal relationships between the independent variables and the dependent variable in the theoretical models. More precisely, we perform the bivariate Granger causality tests between six independent variables and the dependent variable. Empirical analysis is used to validate the theoretical models developed in Chapter III.In Chapter VI, we divide the Chinese economy into provincial-level cross section units. Combining the time series with the cross-section information, we use panel data models to analyze the associations of educational output structure and resource allocation with the economic growth in the three major economic regions in China. The panel data models in this chapter effectively overcome the problem of short time series available for some of the economic variables.Chapter VII concludes the study of this thesis. Deficiencies and the issues to be studied are also pointed out.This thesis succeeds the research outputs in and outside China. It also incorporates the current situation in China, and fully assimilates the previous theoretical research and the latest econometric models. The innovative explorations of this thesis are mainly on the following aspects:First, we provide a new angle of research. In spite of voluminous literature on the relationships between education and economic growth, most of them focus on the overall contribution of education on economic growth, with various time periods and various levels of education. In contrast, this thesis does not confine its attention to general higher education, vocational education is also considered. We discuss the contributions of these two types of education to economic growth separately.Second, we construct a new analytical framework for studying issues in educational output. As far as the local and foreign research documents which we can assess, there is no research in the models of this type.Third, we perform the panel data regressions separately for the three samples of major economic regions in China, namely East, Central and West. The impacts on economic growth of various factors such as classified educational output structure, the level of technological progress, industrial structure, as well as resource allocation, are investigated.