| Since the reform and opening up,China’s economy has grown rapidly,and people’s lives have generally reached a well-off society.However,in the process of economic growth,especially since the 1990s,the income gap has also been expanding.The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that Chinese path to modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all people.Common prosperity is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics,and it is also a long-term historical process.We persist in taking the realization of the people’s aspiration for a better life as the starting point and end result of the modernization drive,and strive to safeguard and promote social fairness and justice,to promote common prosperity for all people,and to resolutely prevent polarization.The Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Fourteenth Five Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Vision for the Year 2035(hereinafter referred to as the Proposal)adopted at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China also mentioned that:at present,China’s unbalanced and inadequate development is still prominent,and there is a large gap between urban and rural regional development and income distribution.However,as China completes the building of a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way,it starts a new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way,we must place greater importance on promoting common prosperity for all people.As for the income gap,scholars have conducted in-depth research and generally believe that the urban-rural income gap is an important part of the income gap.The income gap between urban and rural areas is an important factor that restricts the further development of China’s economy,and it is also the development goal put in an important position by the Chinese government during the 14th Five Year Plan period.Further analysis shows that the difference in education level is the most important factor affecting the urban-rural income gap in China.The lagging development of China’s rural economy,the obvious gap between the level of education investment and human capital and urban areas,the limited migration of agricultural surplus labor force and other factors all make the income level of rural residents fall behind that of urban residents,which is also an important reason for the formation of China’s urban-rural income gap.Entering a new stage of development,it is essential to narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas,achieve rural revitalization,promote common prosperity,and improve human capital investment in rural areas.The existing literature has evaluated the impact of university enrollment expansion policy and government investment in education on the education gap between urban and rural areas,and has also studied the accumulation of rural human capital from education,land endowment,production efficiency and other aspects.However,there is no consensus on the impact of the transfer of land contractual management rights on rural human capital investment.In 2002,the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed the Rural Land Contract Law,which protects contractors from transferring their land contractual management rights legally,voluntarily and with compensation.The biggest difference between this reform and the previous land reform is that it provides legal protection for farmers who lease land.This property right reform has increased the land leasing activities in rural areas,and also made more farmers go out for non-agricultural employment,which has an impact on the income level and education concept of farmers,and thus enhanced human capital investment.Based on the policy impact at the provincial level from 2003 to 2010,this paper uses the 2010 census data to evaluate the impact of the transfer of land contractual management rights on rural human capital investment through the birth cohort construction of the double difference(Cohort-Did),taking individuals who took the secondary school entrance examination from 1995 to 2010 as the research object.Next,the heterogeneity analysis is carried out,and sub samples are divided according to gender,geographical location and per capita cultivated land area to analyze whether there are differences in the degree of individual policy impact.Then,using the rural fixed observation point data and micro survey data CFPS to conduct mechanism analysis,explore whether the impact of rural land transfer on human capital is caused by non-agricultural employment,income increase,and thus increased emphasis on education.Through the above research,this paper draws the following conclusions:First,the transfer of land contractual management right can promote the willingness of rural human capital investment,and the participation probability of individual high schools in rural areas has increased by 2.4%compared with that before the reform;The reform has no significant impact on the high school participation rate of non-agricultural household registration,which is helpful to narrow the urban-rural education gap.Second,the heterogeneity analysis shows that the transfer of land contractual management rights mainly benefits women,children in the western and northeastern regions,and children in provinces with higher per capita cultivated land area.Third,the mechanism analysis shows that the reform has increased the number of farm land subcontracted out,which has reduced the number of pure farmers among household agricultural workers,and more people are mainly engaged in agriculture and concurrently engaged in other businesses,that is,increased non-agricultural employment,and at the same time,the income of migrant workers and business income obtained by families has increased.Fourth,the transfer of land contractual management right has increased the total family income and promoted the family’s emphasis on children’s education.Parents hope their children have a higher education level,are more willing to save money for their children’s education,talk with their children about school more often,and are more willing to urge their children to complete and check their homework.There is no consensus in the previous literature on the transfer of land contractual management rights on rural human capital investment.This paper uses the 2010 census data to analyze the impact of land contractual management rights on rural human capital investment on the basis of previous literature,through the birth cohort and policy implementation of the difference structure cohort double difference(Cohort Did)at the provincial level.The shortcomings of this paper lie in the lack of data related to registered residence registration changes in the census and micro data,and the failure to identify the future residence changes of individuals affected by policies,as well as the changes in income and life of these individuals. |
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