The Effects Of Higher Education Expansion On Economic Growth And Social Equality

Economic growth has always been an important topic of economic research,and economists also pay great attention to social equality.The advantage and disadvantage of expansion admissions in China's college in the past 20 years has also makes many discussions.This paper explores how the expansion of higher education affects economic growth and social equality.First of all,this article analyses the effects of the higher education expansion on modern economic growth stimulated by innovation.On the basis of Schumpeter's innovation and R&D endogenous growth model,this paper points out that the higher education expansion effects on economic growth through two ways:improving human capital and signal interference.The expansion of higher education couled improve human capital so that strengthen the innovation.On the other hand,in the case of information asymmetry,the expansion of higher education may also lead to the signal interference of R&D personnel selection,then makes the negative impact on growth.So the growth effect of higher education expansion may be different in different development stage.Furthermore,the empirical study of China's provincial panel data support the theoretical analysis of this part.Overall,the impact of the higher education expansion on innovation and economic growth in China promote first and then weaken.Secondly,this paper explores how the inequality of higher education opportunities in different classes changes during the process of higher education expansion.We build a theoretical model to analyze how higher education expansion affects higher education choice of families with different income.The analysis shows that the expansion of higher education will help to reduce the quantity inequality,however,may lead to the increase of quality inequality in higher education,which means the inequality of high-level college adimission may be further widened.The results of empirical study using micro data in China show that with the gradual increase of college entrance rate,the economic background of the family has a decreasing effect on the entering for higher education institutions(junior college and above),but has a enhanced effect on entering for the high-level college and university("211","985" institutions).And data supports the conclusion of theoretical analysis.Furthermore,this article focuses on the impact of higher education expansion on social mobility.It argues that the expansion of higher education will cultivate more technical persons,which would promote industrial structure and occupational distubution upward--middle and upper class grow and lower class shrinks.It would provide more opportunities for the individual upward flow.From this perspective,the expansion of higher education will promote social mobility.But on the other hand,the rapid expansion of colleges and universities will led to a decline in the quality of education diplomas at all levels,weakening the education's capacity to promote intergenerational mobility.Thus,the expansion of higher education will hinder social mobility.Overall,the expansion of higher education on the role of social mobility increased first and then decreased.This paper further use Chinese household income survey(CHIP)data of 2013 to test the conclusions and impact mechanism above.Finally,the main conclusions of this paper are summarized.And we make brief policy suggestions in the direction and methods of higher education development in future,based on how to better promote China's economic development,alleviate the inequality of higher education,and promote social mobility.