The Impact Of Education On Poverty Reduction

2020 is a decisive year for China to fight against poverty.Under the background that the global poverty situation is still serious and the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing in some countries,China has lifted 98.99 million rural poor people out of poverty and achieved the goal of poverty reduction in the UN 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development ten years ahead of schedule.Such great achievements are not only closely related to China’s decades of economic development,but also inseparable from the Chinese government’s investment in human capital.In 1986,China promulgated and implemented the Compulsory education law,which stipulates that "all children over the age of six,regardless of gender,ethnicity or race,should enter school and receive compulsory education for a specified period of time".This law has greatly increased the enrollment rate of primary and secondary schools,and the average years of education in the country.The improvement of national education level not only promotes the national economic development,but also brings more opportunities for personal development.The idea that "helping the poor with ambition first,helping the poor with wisdom" shows that education is one of the effective ways to reduce poverty.This article will explore the impact of education on poverty reduction.Based on the survey data of China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)in 2012,2014 and 2016,this paper studies the impact of education on individual-level poverty from a micro perspective,taking the implementation situation of the Compulsory Education Law in different provinces and the length of time that people affected by it as instrumental variables,using the two-stage least squares estimation method to conduct the research.It is found that the increase of educational years has a significant effect on reducing the probability of falling into absolute poverty and relative poverty,and the effect of the latter is stronger than the former.Then,this paper conducts the heterogeneity analysis based on different perspectives,as well as the robustness tests.Finally,this paper attempts to analyze the mechanisms of poverty-reduction effects of education.