| In modern society,every family with children must spend on education;this spending is inevitable and necessary,and is one of the core consumption expenditures.Since our nation switched to market economy,education has been marketized and become more expensive.Besides basic education expenditures,people spend more on selective education programs,shadow education,options for better schools,and school district housing.All these costs have become a heavy financial burden on regular households.Even so,motivated by love,parents tend to allocate more family resources to their children;at all costs they invest on their children’s education,hoping in the long run to maintain or improve their social status.However,due to the budgetary constraints of a household’s absolute income,the increase in children’s education expenditure will inevitably reduce the consumption of other family members.The first thing parents do is to cut their own spending,and thus causing intergenerational consumption inequality,a phenomenon that is often described as "amphibious consumption".Furthermore,each family has a different socioeconomic status.For families of different income classes,the increase in education expenditures also squeezes the consumption of the parents differently,thereby exacerbating the degree of inequality in consumption among social classes.In this study,we analyzed data from CFPS2014(China Family Panel Study,2014).After combining the adult questionnaire,children’s questionnaire and family economic questionnaire,we performed multiple linear regression analysis and interactive analysis.Using the theory of habitus by Pierre Bourdieu,the theory of core consumption determinism by Fu Long and the theory of structural functionalism by Talcott Parsons,we studied the crowding-out effect of rising education expenditure on household daily consumption,core consumption and marginal consumption.We further compared the differences in the crowding-out effects of increased education expenditures on household consumption between different social strata and between urban and rural residents.The specific research conclusions are as follows:First,the education expenditure is heavily influenced by family socioeconomic status,children’s schooling,and parents’ expectation.(1)It is influenced by socioeconomic status.Families with higher per capita annual income and higher parental education level tend to spend more on education.Contrary to those in the private sector,occupations in the public sector do not correlate with education expenditure.(2)It is influenced by school type,the number and age of children.The education expenditure and children’s age show a U-shaped trend: with age,education expenditure first decreases and then increases.Also,expenditure increases substantially when children attend exemplary schools or take extracurricular tutoring classes.Gender and academic performance do not correlate with education expenditure.(3)It is influenced by parents’ expectation: the higher the parents’ expectation,the higher the education expenditure.Second,the family’s socioeconomic status has an impact on household consumption.(1)Parents with lower education level have higher daily consumption,but daily consumption do not correlate with parental occupation or family income.(2)Compared with those having high incomes,low-income parents have lower core consumption,but core consumption do not correlate with parents’ education or occupation.(3)Compared with those having high income,low-and middle-income families have lower marginal consumption.Compared with those working in the private sector,parents working in the public sector have higher marginal consumption.Higher education level correlates with higher marginal consumption.Third,among different social strata the education expenditure has different impact on household consumption.And among different types of household consumptions,the degree of impact is highest on daily consumption,followed by core consumption and marginal consumption.When introducing the social stratification framework into the analysis,household income is found to have a regulatory effect on education expenditure and daily consumption.Education expenditure has a higher degree of squeezing effect on the daily consumption of low-and middle-income families,and on the core consumption and marginal consumption of high-income families.Therefore,the stratification of household income affects not only the level of education expenditure,but also the level of household consumption.Fourth,the impact of education expenditure on household consumption differs between urban and rural residents.(1)Education expenditure squeezes household consumption and the effect on different types of consumption is different between urban and rural residents: to urban residents,the effect is most profound on core consumption,less on daily consumption and least on marginal consumption;to rural residents,the effect is most profound on daily consumption,less on core consumption and least on marginal consumption.(2)Family income has an adjustment effect on education expenditure and household consumption,and this effect is different between urban and rural residents.Although on average its squeeze on daily consumption is less prominent on urban residents than on rural residents,the increase in education expenditure has a greater impact exceptionally on low-income urban residents. |
