Research On The Impact Of Public Investment In Human Capital On Intergenerational Mobility

Intergenerational mobility is a dynamic indicator of opportunity equality.From the individual perspective,the higher intergenerational mobility suggests the lower correlation between economic and social status acquisition and family background,and thus the the probability of class-breaking through personal efforts is likewise higher.From the perspective of social economy,higher intergenerational mobility is usually regarded as a major symbol of equal opportunities and one of the important goals pursued by governments.The research on the transmission mechanism affecting intergenerational mobility mainly focuses on the micro family mechanism.Due to the existence of capital constraints and the difference of family resources,the gap of human capital investment in children is further widened,and the advantage can be persistent between generations.In recent years,various disciplines have begun to pay attention to the impact of structural factors on intergenerational mobility,such as public investment.The government can make up for the insufficient investment of low-income families through public investment,so as to promote intergenerational mobility.However,empirical research still has no consistent conclusion.Due to the data limitation,there are substantial bias in the estimates,and the measurement of public investment is lack of accuracy.In addition,most of the existing literature starts from a single perspective or uses the indicators of intergenerational mobility to replace each other,but the relationship between them is yet to be clear,so there is a lack of systematic understanding of intergenerational mobility.From the perspective of several constituent elements of socio-economic status,this paper studies the intergenerational mobility and transmission mechanism of Chinese society,and further analyzes the impact and mechanism of public investment in human capital on intergenerational mobility.The main research contents and conclusions of this paper include:Firstly,measure the intergenerational mobility of Chinese society from the perspective of income,education and professional status.The results show that:(1)generally speaking,the intergenerational income mobility in Chinese society is relatively high,and the mobility of the whole society shows a certain upward trend.(2)Even if individual characteristics are controlled,family background still plays a significant role in the acquisition of high-level education,and the intergenerational educational mobility shows a downward trend(3)The professional status of rural areas is mainly manifested in low-level professional inheritance,which is easy to fall into the ―poverty trap‖.The professional status of urban areas is mainly manifested in the professional inheritance of the middle class,while the other levels of urban and rural areas are mainly manifested in the intergenerational mobility of occupations.Overall,a common trend of intergenerational mobility of occupations is a slight increase.Secondly,based on error control,the public investment of human capital is introduced into the traditional model to investigate its impact on intergenerational mobility and further identify the beneficiary groups.The results show that:(1)public investment can significantly promote the intergenerational income mobility.The estimates of public investment elasticity(PIE)at different quantiles show an ―inverted U‖ pattern,indicating that the middle-income group benefits more from public investment.In addition,intergenerational mobility is also high in areas with higher public investment.Further analysis shows that the relatively high intergenerational income mobility is mainly generated by the positional change between the middle-income groups and high-income groups.(2)Increasing public investment can effectively increase the schooling years of individuals,especially in rural areas.The impact of public investment on intergenerational educational mobility is heterogeneous.Among them,public investment can effectively increase the educational intergenerational mobility of groups with low education level.(3)Increasing public investment can significantly enhance the intergenerational mobility of professional status.(4)The higher the level of public investment,the greater the probability of intergenerational upward mobility.Even if the regional economic characteristics are controlled,the result is still robust.Thirdly,the mechanism of the impact of public investment on intergenerational liquidity is decomposed.The results show that:(1)the intergenerational transmission path of education is the most stable and has always maintained a trend of continuous strengthening.The intergenerational transmission in economically developed areas is mainly realized through the transmission path of education,while the transmission path of occupation plays a greater role in less developed areas.(2)There are great differences in intergenerational liquidity under different public investment regulation.Given the public investment being adjusted from zero to low,the intergenerational income mobility would increase by about 70%;The moderating effect of public investment on promoting intergenerational educational mobility is only significant for groups with low education level.(3)The results of relative importance analysis show that among the channels of obtaining socio-economic status,individual education and occupation are the two most important factors;Family background factors play an important role,with a contribution ranging from 14% to 78%.The contribution of social and economic environment is about34%,and the lower limit of the contribution of public investment is about 4%.Finally,according to the analysis and conclusion,this paper puts forward policy suggestions to promote intergenerational mobility and equal opportunities from the perspective of income distribution,education system,employment market and public investment optimization.