Education Of Fiscal Decentralization On China's Compulsory Education Supply Efficiency

This paper intends to explore the impact of China's educational decentralization on compulsory education productive efficiency.We use the promotional rate of junior secondary school graduates to measure compulsory education output.Using provincial panel data from 1998 to 2006,our econometric analysis shows that when controlling junior secondary school education expenditure per pupil,the educational decentralization among central and local governments decreases the educational output of rural areas,while increasing that of urban areas.The educational decentralization among provincial and subprovincial governments decreases the educational output of both rural and urban areas.We thus conclude that compulsory education finance should be centralized at rural areas while decentralized at provincial level in order to maximize productive efficiency.