Determinants Of Household Education Spending Behavior

Since China has experienced the reform of higher education in 1999, Human capital is gradually becoming an vital element which affects the overall income distribution pattern in our country and household intergenerational mobility. This dissertation attempts to study household education spending behavior from the perspective of family education needs.This paper uses the 2002 and 2009 Urban Household Survey data of six provinces and the municipality to investigate the factors that household education consumption behavior depends on and the mechanism for household education expenditure. The conclusions show that:(1) The income elasticity of household education expenditure in 2002 is greater than 1, and is bigger than that in 2009. The relationship between household education spending and the age of househead exhibits a "U-type" shape. Girls possess more education resources than boys in households;(2)Among all sub-item consumption, training fee accounts for the biggest part of household’s disposable income;(3) The relationship between urban population size and household education expenditure is significantly positive;(4) As a whole, the wife’s influence on household education expenditure is greater than husband’s and is mainly reflected in the years of education. This paper could provide empirical evidence on the development of the education industry in China and the allocation of family education resources;(5) In general, the inhibiting effect to the living consumption is gradually getting modest, meanwhile, family education expenditure begins to facilitate enjoying consumption and development consumption;but it is still difficult for families with low incomes to get rid of plight of family education expenditure burden while the facilitation of family educational expenditure on others consumption of household is mainly reflected among families with middle and high incomes.