Study On The Impact Of Trade Liberalization On Human Capital Investment In China

In the era of rapid development of science and technology and knowledge economy,the progress of a country’s human capital level provides an inexhaustible driving force for economic growth.As a result,the issue of human capital has received extensive attention.At present,China is facing huge pressure of negative population growth,which weakens the demographic dividend on which China depends.In this context,it is of practical significance to study how to improve China’s human capital level and transform demographic dividend into talent dividend for promoting China’s economic transformation and development.A country’s human capital can be formed not only through investment in education,training and culture,but also through international trade.Trade will generate knowledge spillovers,promote technological progress and guide investment in human capital,which is one of the important ways for developing countries to acquire human capital.In this context,this paper uses the difference-in-differences method to investigate the effect of trade liberalization on human capital investment by distinguishing the treatment group from the control group due to the tariff reduction caused by China’s WTO accession.The marginal contribution of this paper is that from the perspective of research,this paper conducts empirical research from the perspective of individual heterogeneity,and finds that it is more consistent with the actual situation in China to distinguish different groups.In addition,the heterogeneity analysis of differences in gender and educational resources enriches the Chinese experience of research in related fields.In terms of research methods,this paper draws on a more scientific research method: using the employment proportion of each industry to measure the trade liberalization index at the city level;The difference in differences method was used to identify and test.This issue has been re-evaluated by empirical tests using micro data.In terms of research content,this paper starts from the perspective of individual workers’ educational decision-making,analyzes the cost-benefit of individual education investment,establishes the mechanism framework at the micro level,and enriches the relevant content of human capital research.The conclusions of this paper show that:(1)Trade liberalization will inhibit the human capital investment of labor with low education level,and promote the human capital investment of higher education.(2)Trade liberalization has a stronger negative impact on males’ tendency to invest in low-level education,and a stronger positive impact on females’ tendency to invest in higher education.The negative impact on education investment in backward regions is greater,and the positive impact on higher education investment in developed regions is greater.(3)Trade liberalization increases the opportunity cost of education and inhibits human capital investment through low-skilled export expansion;Only in the regions with high-skilled export expansion,it can promote the investment of human capital in the stage of university education;Trade liberalization will affect China’s human capital investment by increasing the supply of jobs,reducing labor wages and increasing the skill premium.We put forward the following policy recommendations:(1)the government should accelerate the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure,which will have a positive guiding effect on China’s human capital investment;(2)Local governments should combine their own talent characteristics and formulate differentiated development strategies according to local conditions;(3)The government should continue to strengthen the reform in the field of education and coordinate the more balanced development of educational resources;(4)The government should call on the whole society to form a diversified awareness of human capital investment,call on individuals to improve their awareness of lifelong learning,and form a social atmosphere that attaches importance to learning;(5)The government should improve the system construction and financial input,provide more perfect social basic security,reduce the opportunity cost of human capital investment,and ensure the free circulation of human resources.