家庭对子女的教育支出行为由来已久，但具有投资性质的家庭教育支出行为则是在国家教育投资制度变迁过程中逐渐产生的。自20世纪70年代以来，西方教育投资制度出现了市场化倾向，非义务教育阶段的投资主体由政府独立承担转向政府、个人共同分担。在世界性教育投资制度改革潮流的影响下，我国教育投资制度也发生了变化，投资主体向个人倾斜。1980年代中期推行的高等教育成本分担与补偿制度，使家庭教育投资行为逐渐形成。

我国是典型的二元经济结构国家，农业生产力水平较落后，农民收入增长缓慢。在教育投资制度变迁的背景下，许多农村家庭的教育投资行为面临着严重的货币约束，教育投资能力明显不足。如果这一问题得不到有效解决，农家子弟通过教育提高自身经济和社会地位的通道就可能被堵塞，教育投资能力差异可能会导致教育机会不均等，从而危及教育公平原则。不仅如此，家庭的低收入水平还可能通过教育的传递机制得以延续，农村居民收入将在低水平上长期徘徊。长此以往，教育问题将会扩散至社会收入分化和公平问题。因此，农村家庭教育投资能力不足，不仅是某一个家庭或个人遇到的“小困难”，而且是关系到国计民生的“大问题”。

本书是一本专门研究我国农村家庭教育投资行为的专著，内容涉及经济学、社会学、教育学等多门学科，是全面了解改革开放30年来农村教育投资制度变迁动因及走向的窗口。

在家庭行为研究领域，美国芝加哥大学教授加里·贝克尔（Gary Beker）是最早把经济学理论引入家庭行为分析的经济学家。贝克尔关于家庭人力资本投资、生育、婚姻等方面的研究不仅开拓了微观经济学研究的新领域，而且他的研究成果也成为家庭经济行为研究的经典文献。纵观以舒尔茨、贝克尔等人为代表的人力资本投资（主要是教育投资）理论，其核心内容是教育投资的成本—收益分析。该理论的基本观点是：个人教育投资收益率是个人教育投资决策的主要依据，个人教育投资行为也像消费者和企业的经济行为一样，是一种追求个人收益（效用）最大化的理性行为。而我国农村的现实是：许多家庭收入远低于教育投资要求，不具备教育投资能力；由于环境的不确定、信息的不完全以及个人认识能力的有限性，农村家庭的教育投资行为并非是完全的理性行为，家庭教育投资可能存在较大的系统性风险。因此，基于理性假设的教育投资理论对教育投资能力不足、风险较大情况下的家庭教育投资行为缺乏解释力。

相比之下，国内关于家庭教育投资的研究主要集中在个人教育投资的回报率（李实等，1994）、家庭教育投资行为的影响因素，如子女性别、年龄甚至出生顺序等（龚继红等，2005；李旻等，2006）、教育成本补偿和助学贷款等。其中，关于教育成本补偿与分担制度、助学贷款制度等的研究，对大学生家庭支付能力有所涉及。随着大学生就业问题的逐渐凸显，关于大学生就业难的研究也日益增多。目前国内广泛的研究视角也充分说明影响农村家庭的教育投资行为的因素是多方面的，有其自身的原因，也有社会、文化和制度方面的原因。因此，对家庭教育投资行为研究既要从传统的收益率视角进行研究，也要正视行为决策者——农村家庭成员的经济承受能力、相关信息的收集能力以及决策能力。新中国成立以来，长期的城乡二元制度安排使农业缺乏自我积累能力、农民缺乏必要的受教育机会和在农业之外的就业能力。从我国农村家庭教育投资困境的成因看，家庭教育投资能力不足和风险增大问题既是农民自身文化素质低下的结果，更是长期以来我国社会制度排斥的结果。因此，将家庭教育投资行为置于社会制度变迁中进行研究，更有价值。关于制度变迁与经济行为的研究，更多的人关注的是制度变迁与政府行为的关系，较少有人研究制度变迁中家庭经济行为的演变及其规律。

本书从制度变迁角度，运用小农经济理论、制度经济学理论、教育投资理论、投资风险理论等全面分析了我国教育投资制度、分配制度和就业制度等因素对家庭教育投资行为的影响，极力把握家庭教育投资行为变化的制度性因素和发展规律，为政府完善教育财政制度和资助体系，提高政府效率，最终提高农村家庭教育投资能力和农村人力资本存量提供理论支持。在研究中，作者试图突破传统的家庭行为分析范式，运用“有限理性”、家庭成员间的“利他行为”等新制度经济学研究方法，对农村家庭教育投资行为的“羊群效应”、家庭稀缺资源分配中冲突的化解方式以及初见端倪的“择校风”、“新读书无用论”等现象进行较深入的剖析，希望通过本书能拓宽家庭经济行为研究的视野，为从根本上解除我国农村家庭教育投资的制度性约束、增加农村教育供给、构建城乡和谐提供现实和理论依据。

本书是在作者的博士毕业论文的基础上修改而成的。这篇论文曾受到校内外“盲评”专家的一致好评，这是对作者四年来努力学习成果的肯定，更是对我的博士生导师罗剑朝教授和西北农林科技大学诸多导师辛勤劳动的最好回报，同时也是西安财经学院领导和同事鼎力相助的结果。

由于受到知识结构、研究能力、实践经验以及科研经费等诸多因素的限制，本书对农村家庭教育投资行为的探讨尚有不足之处。对此，作者将在今后的教学研究中继续深入研究，予以弥补。文中一些观点或作论述可能也有不恰当之处，恳请有关专家和实际工作部门的同仁批评指正。

Families have a long history of spending on their children's education, but the family education expenditure behavior with the nature of investment is gradually produced in the process of changing the national education investment system. Since the 70s of the 20th century, the Western education investment system has shown a market-oriented tendency, and the main body of investment in the non-compulsory education stage has been borne by the government independently to shared by the government and individuals. Under the influence of the reform trend of the world's education investment system, China's education investment system has also changed, and the investment subject is tilted towards individuals. The introduction of a higher education cost-sharing and compensation system in the mid-1980s led to the gradual formation of family education investment. China is a typical country with a dual economic structure, with a relatively backward level of agricultural productivity and slow growth of farmers' income. Under the background of changes in the education investment system, many rural households face serious monetary constraints in their education investment behavior, and their education investment capacity is obviously insufficient. If this problem is not effectively addressed, the channels for rural children to improve their economic and social status through education may be blocked, and differences in the ability to invest in education may lead to unequal access to education, thereby jeopardizing the principle of educational equity. Not only that, the low-income level of households may also be continued through the transmission mechanism of education, and the income of rural residents will hover at a low level for a long time. In the long run, education problems will spill over into income divergence and equity. Therefore, the insufficient investment capacity of rural families in education is not only a "small difficulty" encountered by a certain family or individual, but also a "big problem" related to the national economy and people's livelihood. This book is a monograph specializing in the investment behavior of rural families in China, involving economics, sociology, education and other disciplines, and is a window for a comprehensive understanding of the changes in the rural education investment system in the past 30 years of reform and opening up. In the field of family behavior research, Gary Beker, a professor at the University of Chicago, was the first economist to introduce economic theory into family behavior analysis. Becker's research on family human capital investment, childbirth, marriage, etc. has not only opened up new fields of microeconomic research, but his research results have also become classic literature in the study of family economic behavior. Looking at the theory of human capital investment (mainly education investment) represented by Schultz, Becker and others, its core content is the cost-benefit analysis of education investment. The basic point of view of the theory is that the rate of return on personal education investment is the main basis for personal education investment decisions, and personal education investment behavior, like the economic behavior of consumers and enterprises, is a rational behavior that pursues the maximization of personal returns (utility). The reality in China's rural areas is that many families have incomes far below the requirements for investment in education and do not have the ability to invest in education; Due to the uncertainty of the environment, incomplete information and limited personal cognitive ability, rural families' education investment behavior is not completely rational, and family education investment may have greater systemic risks. Therefore, the education investment theory based on rational assumptions lacks explanatory power for family education investment behavior under the condition of insufficient education investment ability and greater risk. In contrast, domestic research on family education investment mainly focuses on the rate of return on individual education investment (Li Shi et al., 1994), the influencing factors of family education investment behavior, such as the gender, age and even birth order of children (Gong Jihong et al., 2005; Li Min et al., 2006), education cost compensation and student loans. Among them, the research on the education cost compensation and sharing system and the student loan system have covered the ability of college students' families to pay. With the gradual prominence of the employment problem of college students, the research on the difficulty of college students' employment is also increasing. At present, the extensive research perspective in China also fully shows that the factors affecting the education investment behavior of rural families are multifaceted, with their own reasons, as well as social, cultural and institutional reasons. Therefore, the research on family education investment behavior should not only be studied from the perspective of traditional rate of return, but also face up to the behavioral decision-makers-the economic affordability, relevant information collection ability and decision-making ability of rural family members. Since the founding of New China, the long-term urban-rural dual system arrangement has left agriculture lacking the ability to accumulate itself, and peasants lacking the necessary educational opportunities and the ability to find employment outside agriculture. From the perspective of the causes of China's rural family education investment dilemma, the problem of insufficient investment capacity and increased risk in family education is not only the result of the low cultural quality of farmers themselves, but also the result of the long-term exclusion of China's social system. Therefore, it is more valuable to study the investment behavior of family education in the context of changes in the social system. Regarding the research on institutional change and economic behavior, more people pay attention to the relationship between institutional change and government behavior, and fewer people study the evolution and law of household economic behavior in institutional change. From the perspective of institutional change, this book comprehensively analyzes the impact of China's education investment system, distribution system and employment system on family education investment behavior by using small-scale peasant economic theory, institutional economic theory, education investment theory, investment risk theory, etc., and strives to grasp the institutional factors and development laws of family education investment behavior change, so as to provide theoretical support for the government to improve the education financial system and funding system, improve government efficiency, and ultimately improve rural family education investment capacity and rural human capital stock. In the research, the author tries to break through the traditional paradigm of family behavior analysis, and uses new institutional economic research methods such as "limited rationality" and "altruistic behavior" among family members to conduct a more in-depth analysis of the "herd effect" of rural family education investment behavior, the resolution of conflicts in the allocation of scarce family resources, and the emerging phenomena such as "school choice style" and "new reading is useless", hoping to broaden the horizon of family economic behavior research through this book. It provides a practical and theoretical basis for fundamentally lifting the institutional constraints on rural family education investment in China, increasing the supply of rural education, and building urban-rural harmony. This book is based on the author's doctoral dissertation. This paper has been unanimously praised by "blind evaluation" experts inside and outside the university, which is an affirmation of the author's hard work in the past four years, and it is the best reward for the hard work of my doctoral supervisor, Professor Luo Jianchao and many supervisors of Northwest A&F University, and it is also the result of the help of leaders and colleagues of Xi'an University of Finance and Economics. Due to the limitations of many factors such as knowledge structure, research ability, practical experience and scientific research funding, this book still has insufficient research on the investment behavior of rural families' education. In this regard, the author will continue to conduct in-depth research in future teaching research to make up for it. Some of the views or expositions in the article may also be inappropriate, and the relevant experts and colleagues in the actual work department are kindly requested to criticize and correct.（AI翻译）