Human Capital Accumulation And Rural Economic Development

My dissertation for the Master degree, with the title of "Human Capital Accumulation and Rural Economic Development" is mainly concerned with the contribution of preliminary education to rural economic development. Firstly, I give some basic introduction of the Human Capital theory, which is the most influential theory in the world. Then I focus on two classic models about schooling and human capital accumulation. Thus based on relevant theories, I make some empirical analysis to the actual status of preliminary education in rural areas. The conclusion is that education levels in rural areas have direct impacts on the development of rural economy as well as on farmers' income. Moreover, the problem of girls' schooling attainment has far-reaching implications to the development of rural areas. Therefore, this paper sheds some light on the solutions to the problems above-mentioned, focusing on preliminary education which is the main source of human capital accumulation and plays a role in eliminating the education discriminations in rural areas.In the preface, some questions are elicited. From the point of Human Capital theory, human capital accumulation has some realistic significance. Thus after realizing the actual problems in China's rural areas, this paper maintains strengthening the preliminary education which is a main form of human capital accumulation in rural areas to quicken its economic development.Chapter 1 studies the evolvement of the Human Capital theory since two centuries ago, especially focuses on its development in the recent fifty years. Some applications about this theory are introduced.In chapter 2, we develop two classical models based on the above-mentioned theory. One is the Lucas (1988) model, which is about the contribution of human capital investment to economic growth, and this model makes people renew their views on human capital investment. The other is Mincer's model of earning (1974), which is a core stone of empirical analysis on schooling. But because of somedifficulties in its applications, this model has been neglected for a long time. In the empirical analysis later, this paper takes advantage of this model and makes some necessary modifications to it.Chapter 3 reveals some ineligible problems of preliminary education in China's rural areas, especially the sexual discrimination to girls. Then after making empirical analysis, we draw conclusions: the junior high school education contributes most to the rural economic development, and the rates of return of rural preliminary school are diminishing.Chapter 4 gives the author's conclusions and some policy implications.