Research On The Measurement And Influencing Factors Of Educational Opportunity Inequalities In China

Under the framework of Roemer(1993,1998,2003)“Environment-Effort” binary analysis,we use CGSS 2010-2015 mixed cross-section data,based on parametric method and Theil index to measure the extent of China's overall education inequality that comes from opportunity inequality.The educational opportunities brought about by the “environment” are not equal,and the degree of its change and development trend in recent decades has been analyzed.Combining the unique characteristics of the urbanrural structure,educational gender discrimination and unbalanced regional development,this paper studies the heterogeneity of educational inequality caused by inequalities in educational opportunities between different groups.We use the Shapley value decomposition method to measure the contribution of different environmental factors to the unequal educational opportunities in China and try to find out the main reason.In this paper,we use the Probit model to measure the unequal educational opportunities in different stages of education in China.We divide all samples into several subgroups according to their birth dates and observe the changing trend of educational opportunities inequality for each stage.We try to find out which stage that current educational opportunities inequality is mainly concentrated in.The Shapley value decomposition method is also used to measure the influence of each environmental factor on the educational opportunity inequality in different stages.Finally,the ranking Probit model is used to test the robustness of the basic conclusions obtained.The basic conclusions obtained in this paper include:First,the overall level of education inequality in China has maintained a downward trend and the absolute value of inequality in educational opportunities has also declined from generation to generation,but the relative value of educational opportunity inequality has shown a more serious development.Based on the Theil index,the educational inequalities caused by the inequality of opportunity in China calculated by the direct method are 28.78%?28.55%?29.02%?38.05% and 40.99% for the individual born in 1940-1949,1950-1959,1960-1969,1970-1979,1980-1989,respectively.The degree calculated by indirect method are 39.78%,42.44%,40.55%,46.61% and 46.63%,respectively.Although the overall level of education inequality in China is decreasing,the irrational opportunity inequalities derived from the objective environment are higher.The inequalities in educational opportunities are becoming more and more serious.Second,parental education,urban-rural structure,and regional factors have the greatest impact on educational inequality among the environmental factors studied in China.For the whole sample,the contribution rate of the father's education level is 24.24% and the contribution rate of the mother's education level is 22.64%.China has serious intergenerational transmission and this phenomenon needs to be paid special attention to.The contribution rates of urban-rural and regional factors are 12.78% and 11.20% respectively,and they are slowly decreasing.Because of long-term barriers,the two factors cannot be eliminated in a short time,but their changes have shown the effects of China's household registration system reform and other measures to promote educational equity.Third,women's educational inequality and educational opportunity inequality are always higher than men in China.Women are more easily affected by irrational environmental factors while men's educational inequalities are more from “efforts”,but this gap is gradually shrinking with the chronology.Gender differences have different influences on the unequal educational opportunities in each stage of education.The contribution rate of gender gradually decreases with the increase of education stage and gender differences are no longer the main factors restricting women's acceptance of higher education in China.China's middle and higher education has made great progress in dealing with gender differences,but there are still significant gender differences in the middle and lower levels of education.Fourth,there are urban-rural differences and regional differences in the unequal educational opportunities in China.There are more reasonable returns to “efforts” in the underdeveloped areas,while educational inequality in more developed regions is more from “Opportunities" rather than "efforts".Specifically,the degree of inequality in rural education is higher than that in cities.The absolute unequal educational opportunities are higher in rural areas than in cities,but the relative degree is higher in urban areas than in rural areas.Unreasonable returns from the environmental factors are more serious in cities.Education inequality in the central and western regions is higher than the east,but education inequality in the eastern region is more due to inequality of opportunities.Also,there are more opportunity inequalities in general education in China than in vocational education.Fifth,there are different time trends of opportunity inequalities for China's different stages of education.Inequalities in educational opportunities have gradually changed from primary to secondary and higher education.The promotion of compulsory education has played a positive role in promoting equal opportunities in primary education.However,the policy of enrollment in higher education may only bring higher acceptance.The increase in the number of educators does not improve the degree of equal opportunity from the exogenous environment for people.The increase in educational opportunities is not equal to the fairness of opportunities,the expansion of education does not significantly increase the fairness of educational opportunities among individuals,just as revealed by the MMI theory.The fairness of access to higher education is directly related to social class mobility and socio-economic development.The results calculated by the ranking Probit model show that the main inequality in China has been concentrated in higher education,the problem is waiting for a stronger policy system.Finally,based on these conclusions,we put forward some corresponding policy recommendations to further promote China's educational equity from the perspective of opportunity inequality in the future,improve the rational distribution of educational resources,and then promote China's human capital stock accumulation,income equality,class mobility,economic and social development,etc.