A Study On The Neighborhood Effect Of Family Education Expenditure In The Compulsory Education Stage

In the final analysis,the current competition between countries is the competition for talents,and the construction of talents cannot be separated from the development of education.Among the many subjects in the development of education,the family is the most important main force besides the government.As the scale of family education expenditure continues to expand,its importance is also increasing.Becker has pointed out that the family’s educational resource allocation decision determines the family’s rise and fall.A country is made up of hundreds of millions of families.As a result,it is of great practical significance to explore its decision mechanism.Earlier researchers believed that family’s education expenditures were mainly affected by two aspects: family micro-factors and national macro-policy.But since the 1980 s,more and more people have begun to realize that the influence of individuals’ homogeneous circles on their behavior and output.Many existing studies have also confirmed that individuals do change their behavioral decisions because of the behaviors or thoughts of others in the group.Scholars call this individual’s influence on others’ behavioral decision-making as peer effect or neighborhood effect.Everyone is in a certain social relationship,and although we usually deny being affected,it will inevitably be assimilated in the interaction with others.There are more fat people around fat people,and students who have good academic performancea are more likely to be in the same dormitory.People who love online shopping are also like making fridends with those who love online shopping.So,as an important consumption and investment activity of the family,is education expenditure also affected by the behavior of education expenditure of other families in the group? If it is indeed affected,to what extent? Is there a difference in this effect between different families?In view of the above problems,this dissertation analyzes the existence of the neighborhood effect of family’s education expenditure from the perspective of the mutual influence between the neighborhoods.At the same time,the effect of neighborhood effect on family education expenditure in urban and rural areas andbetween regions was further explored,and suggestions for improvement were put forward based on the research conclusions.Through the above studies,it is beneficial to enrich the theoretical system of family education expenditures and neighborhood effects,broaden the research horizon of influencing factors of family education expenditures,and to a certain extent,it can provide reference materials for the central government and families to plan education expenditures more scientifically.This dissertation used multiple regression models and interview to demonstrate views.In the empirical analysis section,we used the data from the CFPS in 2014 as the sample,and used the ordinary least squares(OLS)method and instrumental variable(IV)method to conduct an empirical study on the relationship between education expenditures of other families in the community and their own education expenditure.The results of quantitative study imply that at cumpulsory education stage,the education expenditure of other families in the same community does have a significant positive impact on the family’s own education expenditure,that is,the family’s education expenditure does exist a neighborhood effect.This neighbourhood effect has significant differences between urban and rural families.The neighbourhood effect of rural families is significantly stronger than that of urban families.This shows that in rural communities,family-to-family interactions are closer and more affected by neighborhood effects.Further,according to the standards of the National Bureau of Statistics,this article divides the provinces in which the families are located into the east,central,and western regions,and explores the differences in neighborhood effects between families in different regions.It is found that the neighborhood effect has a significant positive impact on education expenditure of households in the eastern and central region,and is significantly stronger in central region,but has no effect on the western regions.In addition,based on quantitative study,this dissertation further conducted interview research.The interview results show that the neighborhood effect of education expenditure is mainly due to the psychological motivation of family comparison and the pursuit of social status.In the short term,the existence of the neighborhood effect will play a positive role in encouraging the accumulation of children’s human capital and the development of national education.However,in thelong term,it will lead to the formation of vicious competition between families,leading to blind and irrational investment in education.It also further widens the educational gap between families with different economic conditions.Finally,based on empirical analysis and interview analysis,this dissertation puts forward some policy recommendations—families should establish a correct view of investment in education and choose education expenditures rationally;communities should strengthen publicity services and strengthen communication between families;the government should pay attention to the education issues of different economic groups,increase funding for students from poor families,and narrow the education gap between families.