如前面提到,人力资本理论认定工人具有的知识和技能可以提高生产力。然而,对于教育如何提高生产力,则有不同的解释。斯本塞(Michael Spencer)认为[2],教育在劳动市场上为工人可能达到的生产效率力提供信息:学历较高的人在一定时间内获得更多教育,由此推断他们获得教育的成本低些。塞罗(Lester C. Thurow)则认为生产效率力是工作过程本身具有的特征;雇主挑选教育程度高的人是因为他们的培训成本可能低些,对工作熟悉快些[3]。另一些学者则持激进的新马克思主义观点,认为工人从教育中获得的知识技能并不是影响劳动效率和收入的主要因素[4]。工人从教育中培养起来的性格,便于雇主管理和控制他们,工资只是资本主义制度对工人性格的偿付。笔者对深圳的企业职工培训的分析认为,与工作有关的技术和能力主要是在与生产过程有关的培训和工作中学到的,基础教育培养了工人的可培训性和对变化的适应性[5]。
有趣的是,1994年美国著名的教育经济学家莱文(Henry M. Levin)和凯利(Carolyn Kelley)[17]运用各方面的数据分析,发现美国中学生的学习成绩与工资收入无正向关联;美国人口的教育程度在十年间提高了,但平均收入却下降了;黑人女性的教育程度在十年间提高了,但对福利的依赖却增加了;人口的教育程度提高了,但对社会政治的参与率(投票选举率)却下降了。他们指出,经济政策和社会政策,人民对国家机构的信心、企业的培训和企业都与生产效益和工资收入有关。
[1] Gary S. Becker, Human Capital (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964); Theodore W. Schultz, “Investment in Human Capital”, The American Economic Review 51, no. 1 (March 1961): 1-17; Jacob Mincer, Schooling, Experience, and Earnings (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974).
[2] Michael Spencer, “Job market signaling”, Quarterly Journal of Economics 87, no. 3 (August 1973): 355-74.
[3] Lester Thurrow, Generating Inequality (New York: Basic Books, 1975).
[4] Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America (New York: Basic Books, 1976).
[5] Xiao Jin, “Alternative learning approaches in an Emerging Economy: An Experience of Shenzhen, China”, Educational Practice and Theory 21, no. 1 (1999): 27-49.
[6] Tsang Mun Chiu, “The impact of underutilization of education and productivity: A case study of the U.S. Bell Companies”, Economics of Education Review 6, no. 3 (1987): 239-54
[7] Paul Belanger and Albert Tuijnman, New Patterns of Adult Learning: A Six-Country Comparative Study (New York: Pergamon, 1997).
[8] U.S. Department of Labor, Formal Occupational Training of Adult Workers, Manpower Research and Development Monograph no. 2 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1964).
[9] Adrian Ziderman and Robin Horn, “Many paths to skilled employment: a reverse tracer study of seven occupations in Colombia”, Education Economics 3, no. 1 (1995): 61-79.
[10] Xiao Jin, “Education Expansion in Shenzhen, China: Its Interface with Economic Development”, International Journal of Educational Development 18, no. 1 (1998): 3-19.
[11] Xiao Jin, “Determinants of Salary Growth in Shenzhen, China: An Analysis of Formal Education, On-The-Job Training, and Adult Education with a Three-Level Model”, Economics of Education Review (forthcoming).
[13] Xiao Jin and Tsang Mun Chiu, “Human capital development in an emerging economy: An experience in Shenzhen, China”, The China Quarterly (March 1999).
[14] Paul Bennell, “Using and Abusing Rates of Return: A Critique of the World Bank s 1995 Education Sector Review”, International Journal of Educational Development 16, no. 3 (1996): 235-48.
[15] Chung Yue-ping, “Educated Mis-employment in Hong Kong: Earnings effects of employment in unmatched fields of work”, Economics of Education Review 9, no. 4 (1990): 343-50.
[16] Chung Yue-ping, “Returns to vocational education in developing nations”, in International Encyclopedia of Economics of Education, ed. M. Carnoy (New York: Pergamon, 1994), 175-81.
[17] Henry M. Levin and Carolyn Kelley, “Can education do it along?” Economics of Education Review 13, no. 2 (1994): 97-108.
[18]同注1 Becker。
[19] Xiao Jin, “Higher adult education in China: Redefining its roles”, in Higher Education in Post-Mao China, ed. Michael Agelasto and Bob Adamson (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1998), 189-210.
[21] Xiao Jin, “Education Expansion in Shenzhen, China: Its Interface with Economic Development”, International Journal of Educational Development 18, no. 1 (1998): 3-19