On The Relationship Between Farmer's Income And Education In Poor Rural Areas In China--A Case Study In Yingshan, Hubei Province

The problems that concern the farmers rank among the most sesious issues in China, while how to raise the farmer's income forms the most pressing questions concerning the farmers. According to the classical theory of economics of education, education is one of the most fundamental factors that can influence income. In the rural areas of China, does education play its due role in raising the farmer's income? Is the role of education important? What reforms should we carry out to raise the importance of education? The questions above are what the paper will try to answer.The relationship between education and productivity is one of he key research points in economics of education. It has been verified that agriculture is the best field to study the relationship between education and productivity. The farmers are usually self-employed and the family forms a basic economic unity. Because the labor market does not exist in agriculture, the signaling role and socializing role do not exist accordingly. If we can prove that in agriculture the fanners with high education do have higher income, we can say with certainty that education pays positive role in productivity. The relationship between education and productivity is the theoretical question this paper will try to answer.To draw a fair conclusion above the practical and the theoretical questions, the authors took the opportunity of being a volunteer teacher in Yingshan, Hubei province from Sep, 2002 to July, 2003 and conducted a lot of investigation on education and economy in Yingshan. After the life of being a volunteer teacher, the author reached Yingshan two times, Nov, 2003 and Apr, 2004 respectively, for further investigation on the latest development of education and economy. The investigation forms the foundation of the paper.This paper consists of 5 parts. The first is the introduction. In the introduction to the paper, the author defines clearly the questions that will be studied and some important concepts. On the meanwhile, the study significance, the study result thathave already been achieved and the study method have been expounded. In the second part, the author takes Maao village, Wenquan (hot spripg) town as an example, analyzing the relationship between the farmer's income arid the traditional agriculture. The conclusion is that there does not exist clear relationship between education and traditional agriculture. In the third part, the author takes Lianhua village, Wenquan town as an example, analyzing the relationship between education and the transitional agriculture. In the early days of technology introduction, the technology depends on, to some extent, the education. With the popularization of the new technology in the district, the role of education in technology introduction declines. The fourth part takes Caopan Vocational Middle School as an example, analyzing the relationship between vocational education and income distribution. Restricted by the agricultural risks and the lack of scale economy, the vocational education can not raise the farmer's income efficiently. The conclusion of the whole paper and some illustrations are stated in the last part.This study is based on the on-spot-investigation and is conducted with qualitative method. The qualitative method puts high premiums to acquiring the relevant social information through case study. From the case study of YingShan, we can see the problems of education and economy not only in Yingshan, but also in Luotian, Hubei province and Yuexi, Huoshan, Jinzhai, Taihu, Anhui province. Because these counties, according to the theory of FeiXiaotong, are the same pattern. To some extent, we can also see some problems concerning education and economy that exist in whole china. If these questions receive more investigation and study, economics of education will plays greater role in reforming our society.