| The development facts of many countries show that the level of family fertility tends to decline with the improvement of the level of economic and social development.According to the data of the seventh national census,the total fertility rate in China in 2020 was only 1.3,and the birth population in China in the same year was only 12 million,compared with more than 17 million births in 2016 and 2017.In order to find an effective way to improve China’s fertility level,this paper studies the impact of education expenditure on the fertility decision-making of families of childbearing age in China on the basis of the analysis of becker’s quantity-quality substitution theory,Harvey’s cost utility theory and other fertility theories,starting from the microscopic perspective of family education.This paper first analyzes and sorts out the relevant literature to understand the research status of low fertility and education expenditure,and determines the basic research ideas;secondly,12 families of childbearing age are interviewed in depth to understand the educational motivation and allocation of education input of families of childbearing age;and finally,the latest China Family Tracking Survey（CFPS）data in the fourth phase of 2014,2016,2018 and 2020 is cleaned up,fully considering the time lag of the existence of regression,and forming three-stage mixed cross-sectional data.The impact of education expenditure on the number of children in the family is also considered after the inclusion of elements such as the urban-rural gap,the sex of the first child and the sub-itemization of education expenditure.The final conclusion is as follows:（1）Education expenditure has a significant impact on the birth decisionmaking of families of childbearing age,and the increase in education expenditure has led to a significant decrease in the number of children in the family;（2）through the study of the difference between urban and rural areas,it is found that compared with rural families,the fertility decisions of urban families are more likely to be affected by changes in education expenditure,and there is a difference effect between the two;（3）the subdivision of education expenditure of families of childbearing age finds that the impact of extracurricular tutoring fees on the number of children in the family is greater than that of tuition and miscellaneous expenses and other education expenditures.（4）The gender of the first child in urban households does not interfere with the impact of family education expenditure on the number of children in the family,but this is not the case for rural families,and when the first child of rural childbearing age families is boys,the negative impact of education expenditure on family reproductive decisions is much greater than that of girls in the first child’s gender,of course,in areas with a strong preference for boys,this negative impact is significant in both urban and rural areas. |
