【作者】 赵国友；

【导师】 纪尽善；

【作者基本信息】 西南财经大学 ， 政治经济学， 2008， 博士

【摘要】 进入新世纪以来,中国政府对两个重大问题给予高度关注:一是“三农”问题;二是社会和谐。在城市化和工业化进程中,农业日益成为弱质产业,农民成为弱势群体,农村的稳定与发展日渐成为经济社会进一步发展的焦点和关键。“三农”问题与构建和谐社会密切相关,“三农”问题的解决有助于社会和谐与可持续发展。目前,中国社会总体上是和谐的,但存在着影响社会和谐的诸多不利因素。如:城乡收入差距持续扩大,区域发展严重失衡,社会保障制度滞后及潜在失业大量存在,等等。在所有这些问题和因素中,“三农”问题是影响构建和谐社会的最主要因素。因为“三农”问题带有全局性和根本性,“三农”问题的解决涉及到各方面利益关系。既然“三农”问题与利益分配、制度政策密切相关,那么,重新调整制度安排和利益分配,就成为当前有效解决“三农”问题、增加和谐因素的关键。在实行市场经济的现代国家,利益分配模式不外乎两种:一种是投资贡献分配,谁投资谁受益,投资额愈大,收益也就愈多;一种是权力分配,也即政府通过财政预算实现在不同集团、阶层、群体之间的分配。前一种分配是市场经济的惯例,有助于刺激经济增长,但这一分配方式使社会弱势群体只能靠社会救济和政府财政支付转移才有维持生计的希望。后一种分配途径,有助于实现社会公平公正,缩小差距。我国目前正处于兼顾经济增长和社会公平的两难境地。农民作为最大社会弱势群体,由于人力资本积累水平较低和政策的边缘化,在市场经济条件下依靠自身获得收敛与城市居民差距的有效资源的可能性和机会不大。在此情况下,政府的作用不可或缺,政府的积极定位和精心谋划就成为解决“三农”问题的关键。当我们看到多数农民在一个接一个增收政策实施之后增加收入的努力仍旧收效甚微时,就懂得了为什么会有“三农”问题的出现和城乡差别。“一个像祖辈那样耕作的人,无论土地多么肥沃或他如何辛勤劳动,也无法生产出大量食物。一个得到并精通运用有关土壤、植物、动物和机械的科学知识的农民,即使在贫瘠的土地上,也能生产出丰富的实物。”著名经济学家舒尔茨的这段话对于我们如何解决“三农”问题、促进农村发展和构建和谐社会无疑具有根本性的启迪作用。那么,今天的中国农业、农村、农民是否具有舒尔茨所说的传统特征?又将如何改造和解决?这是近年来越来越多的学者深入思考的经济学问题。如果将舒尔茨发展农业的人力资本理论对照国内学者对实现我国城市化和农业现代化路径的思考和主张,我们发现,这些思考和主张难免有些急功近利之嫌。中国是一个人口众多的农业大国,如果将农村人口简单地从农村转移出去,不仅会增加城市就业压力,而且可能造成荒废土地,无助于农业自身发展。而发展现代工业,实现城市化,又必须转移农村剩余劳动力,这似乎是一个悖论。但问题的关键在于,我们采取何种方法解决问题。最近几年,在中国政府和学界有一个共识:经济持续增长离不开农民,只有农民收入不断稳定增长,才能刺激有效需求,拉动投资,促进经济稳定发展。那么,如何增加农民收入?进入新的世纪以来,政府提出和实施了一系列具体解决方案和措施,诸如调整收入分配,免除农业税,减免农村义务教育学杂费,加大政府对农村的财政转移支付力度,调整税收和税率,遏制腐败,控制行业垄断,等等。这些解决措施和办法中有一个明显的缺陷——外部性太强,也即农民增收更多依靠外部力量——政府及其政策来实现的。本文试图从“三农”问题自身寻找解决方案,即从对农村人力资本投资、提高农民获取收入能力的视角寻找解决如何缩小差距、构建和谐社会的方案和办法。当然,这一方案的具体实施仍然离不开政府的积极作为。新旧世纪之交,国内经济社会发展出现了许多新变化和新形势。从经济角度看,从1978年到2008年,我国经济持续增长整整30年,年均GDP增长超过了8、9%,持续增长的时间在国际上也是少有的。然而,正是经济增长而非均衡快速增长,使得经济利益分配在空间及人口数量上严重失衡。从地域看,(1)地区经济发展不平衡,特别是东西部差距进一步拉大;(2)城乡经济发展不平衡,农民收入增长缓慢,城乡差距继续扩大,城乡居民人均收入的基尼系数已逼近警戒点。从人口数量看,(1)社会财富越来越严重地向少数人集中,社会阶层分化趋势明显;(2)就业压力严重,农村隐性和潜在的失业人口凸显,并随着农村剩余劳动力向城市的单向流动,城市就业压力日趋紧张。从社会看,(1)经济收入差距的渐趋扩大和制度改革的滞后性,使得社会分配不公问题日益社会化;(2)腐败等不合理收入分配问题,使社会承受力在缩小,部分社会成员特别是社会弱势群体的心理发生不利于社会稳定和和谐的嬗变。按照国际经验,目前我国正处在发展战略机遇期。一些国家和地区的发展历程表明,在人均国内生产总值突破1000美元之后,经济社会发展就进入了一个关键阶段。这一阶段具有两种可能性,一是处理好经济发展中的问题和矛盾,经济社会会进一步发展;一是仅仅追求经济增长,忽视经济增长中附带的问题和矛盾,结果出现社会结构高度紧张、社会矛盾最容易激化的高风险阶段。从国际层面来看,我们面临着来自发达国家经济科技明显优势的巨大压力。一方面,当今世界正处在大变革大调整之中。世界多极化不可逆转,经济全球化深入发展,全球和区域合作方兴未艾,国与国相互依存日益紧密,国际力量对比朝着有利于维护世界和平方向发展,国际形势总体稳定。这些为我国争取更多的发展时间和更好的发展环境提供了外部条件。我们必须抓住这一大好机遇,争取快速发展。另一方面,科技革命加速推进,发达国家经济科技具有明显的优势,使得我们面临巨大压力。更为严重的是,苏东剧变使得国际共产主义运动遭受巨大挫折。之后,一些西方敌视势力仍然没有放弃“冷战思维”、“和平演变”的妄想和企图,加上经济交往日益密切的趋势,使得各种社会思潮互相激动,从而对人们的价值取向等产生重大影响,等等。这些问题使得我们在取得一系列成绩与繁荣之后,不得不居安思危,清醒地认识到,新世纪之初复杂多变的国际形势给我国国家安全带来的挑战。认真梳理、正确认识、妥善应对这些挑战,我们才能真正维护和延长“重要的战略机遇期”,才能真正完成中华民族的历史复兴大业。正是面对国内外各种新形势,党和政府高瞻远瞩,革新思想,提出和制定了建设社会主义新农村、构建社会主义和谐社会等战略目标和规划。所以,从人力资本视角研究和谐社会不失为一个有益的理论探索,其研究具有重要的现实意义。经济学诞生以来,国家、政府与市场的关系便成为一个永恒话题。在私有制社会里,市场经济作用的最显著表现是贫富两极分化。在社会主义社会,市场经济机制的作用仍然存在,如果没有政府的作用,那么,不仅存在弱势群体及弱势群体被经济增长带来的利益分享边缘化等情况,而且会产生诸如“三农”问题、收入差距悬殊、社会不公与经济效率失衡等影响和谐社会构建的因素。那么,政府在解决上述影响和谐社会构建因素的着力点或切入点在哪里?本文以人力资本投资与积累理论作为解释工具和手段,以当前我国农村人力资本投资与积累现状为基础,假设现阶段中国社会只存在农村居民和城市居民两个群体,并具有不同的人力资本投资与积累水平,且农村居民的人力资本投资与积累水平低于城市居民的人力资本投资与积累水平,通过运用人力资本投资与收益规律,证实在我国造成城乡收入差距渐趋扩大的因素除历史的和政策的因素外,现有农村居民的人力资本积累水平和投资规模都远远不如城市居民也是主要原因之一。所以,本文立足构建社会主义和谐社会的新形势研究农村人力资本投资与积累问题,是一项极具现实意义的研究课题。论文从结构及逻辑关系上分为五个部分:第一部分为第一章绪论,进行理论假设(提出问题及研究视角);第二部分即第二、三章是假设的理论基础和现实依据;第三部分包括第四至七章,对理论假设进行系列经验分析及实证分析;第四部分为第八章,探讨国外农村人力资本投资和积累的基本经验和做法,第五部分为第九章,提出重新构建适应和谐社会的农村人力资本投资与积累机制及其政策含义。第一章绪论。主要包括问题提出的国内外现实背景与研究基本思路、研究重要意义、研究主要方法和逻辑结构安排等。指出“三农”问题的严重性、重要性及对构建社会主义和谐社会的影响;改革开放以来城乡收入差距不断拉大及农民增收效果不显著的根本原因在于政府主导型改革模式下的农民等社会群体被经济发展成果日趋边缘化;出路在于必须转变政府在“三农”问题上的短期行为,建构解决“三农”问题的战略路径:即从重视农村教育入手,不断加大对农村地区的人力资本投资规模,将粗放型农村发展政策——即依靠外部力量推动的农村居民收入增长转变为集约型农村发展政策——即依靠自身人力资本积累推动的农村居民收入增长。第二章,主要内容为相关基础理论及研究框架。对相关基础理论的国内外研究现状进行了综述,在此基础上提出本文的理论研究框架。人力资本投资理论早期分析思路主要围绕以下两个方面展开的:一是人力资本与经济增长的关系;二是人力资本与收入分配的关系。前者阐明了人力资本投资途径及人力资本存量在经济增长、工资收入中的重要作用,后者率先运用人力资本投资方法研究收入分配,并建立了人力资本投资收益模型,提出了人力资本获利函数,认为劳动者收入差别与接受教育和获得工作经验年限长短相关,并在考察在职培训对终生收入模式影响时,提出了“追赶”时期的概念。国内对人力资本投资研究突出的表现在对收入差距的影响,普遍认为区域差距、城乡差距、东西差距与人力资本投资的关联性极高。根据人力资本投资理论早期的研究逻辑思路,本文加以拓展,进一步提出人力资本投资对和谐社会产生重要影响。第三章,我国农村人力资本投资与积累现状的综合考察。理论研究离不开现实,我国农村人力资本积累和投资的现状即为本文研究的现实依据和基础。其一:农村人力资本投资与积累机制不合理。人力资本投资与积累机制不合理的依据在于政府在城乡人力资本投资与积累上采取城乡有别的政策,农村居民对人力资本投资与积累几乎完全依靠自身有限资源进行,而城市居民得到政府的支持更多更大;其二:农村人力资本长期处于低水平积累状态。政府的有限支持,加上自身能力不及,农村居民人力资本积累长期处于低水平循环状态,存量小,增量不大。第四章,主要从城乡收入差距角度考察农村人力资本投资对构建和谐社会的影响。由于人力资本投资与收益成正向关系,投资愈大,积累水平愈高,获取经济机会就愈多,其收益就愈大。所以,即便政府重新进行有利于农村居民的制度安排,城乡居民收入差距仍处在库兹涅茨倒“U”假说的第一阶段——不大扩大阶段。中国政府高度重视日趋扩大的城乡收入差距,采取了诸如减免农业税等措施以增加农民收入,但收效不大。本文认为根本原因在于这些政策对于农民增收只具有外部作用,仅依靠外部力量是一个短期行为,无助于根本解决城乡收入差距问题,政府必须站在战略高度,以教育投入为切入点,加大对农村人力资本投资,方能收到事半功倍之效果,最终化解因收入差距扩大而引发的不和谐因素。第五章,主要从经济效率角度考察农村人力资本投资对构建和谐社会的影响。农村人力资本低水平积累通过消费等环节对经济效率产生诸多负面影响。当前理论界关于农村人力资本低水平积累对经济效率影响的研究,主要集中在对经济效率的损失上。由于农村人力资本低水平积累且与城市人力资本积累存在较大差距,于是,导致了城乡收入差距的不断拉大。以消费函数理论为依据,与城市居民的消费不同,农村居民在消费结构和水平上都对经济效率的提升起到了限制作用。高储蓄,低消费;经济增长出现畸形的拉动模型——内需尤其农村居民生活消费不足、投资与出口拉动偏大。这不仅影响了农村居民生活质量的提高,而且对整个经济结构优化和国民经济平稳发展带来了较大影响。实证分析的结果和经验观察的结论大体趋于一致。第六章,主要从社会公平角度考察农村人力资本投资对构建和谐社会的影响。农村人力资本低水平积累,损害的不仅仅是经济效率,对社会公平也形成了巨大冲击。三十年的经济改革和对外开放,我们基本遵循的是“效率优先、兼顾公平”这一社会福利最大化的哲学思维模式。总体上看,社会总体福利水平确实得到了显著提升。但是,由于人力资本及其他因素的约束,农村居民在绝对福利提高的情况下,相对福利却在降低,相当一部分农村居民无意识地陷入了“相对贫困综合症”的循环之中。正常的均衡的社会流动被打破,社会阶层流动趋于僵化,并由此引发了一系列的利益冲突和社会矛盾,从而对公平正义和和谐社会的构建产生了深刻影响。对此,重视农村人力资本积累这一起点公平要比关注过程公平和结果公平显然重要的多。从社会公平角度审视农村人力资本积累低水平循环所产生的负面影响,涉及三个方面的主要内容,一是对社会公平有关文献遗产的历史考察;二是对农村人力资本积累与社会公平之间的关系进行论证;三是着重研究农村人力资本积累对社会公平造成的负面影响表现。第七章,主要是对农村人力资本投资与和谐社会的相关性实证研究。揭示了我农村人力资本投资与积累通过收入差距作用机制对和谐社会产生的影响。因为收入差距的明显扩大会进一步影响社会心理发生变化,从而导致诸多社会冲突和社会不稳定。如果反而观之,引起社会冲突及不稳定的因素是复杂的,但最为根本的是利益冲突,其它冲突都从属于利益冲突。基于利益冲突视角,借用经济行为分析和博弈分析等方法,验证了收入差距变化引起社会心理变化最终损害社会和谐的经验观察。第八章,主要内容是介绍外国农村人力资本积累机制的做法与经验。我国是一个农业大国,农民占人口中的绝大多数,农村的社会经济相对落后。农民真苦、农村真穷、农业真危险的“三农”问题已成为制约我国工业化、城市化和现代化进程的最大障碍,只有工业和农业两大产业齐头并进,学会两条腿走路,才会发展得更好更快。尽管世界各国社会制度和经济发展水平不同,但一些国家特别是发达国家重视农业发展的事实已为经学家所承认。各国在农村发展过程中除了在制度、政策、福利对农村倾斜之外,都十分重视农村教育改革,在加快农村人力资本积累方面取得了宝贵经验。研究和借鉴这些国家尤其是发达国家农村教育及人力资本积累的经验,对推动我国农村教育的发展及人力资本积累水平的提高具有重要的现实意义。本章较为全面的介绍了欧美发达国家、拉美国家、亚洲新兴工业化国家、转型国家和欠发达国家等五种类型国家农村人力资本积累机制的基本做法。其中,有两种相反的做法值得我们重视,一是欧美发达国家和新型工业化国家对基础教育的高度重视(体现在立法、经费支持等方面);二是拉美国家和欠发达国家对基础教育的忽视(体现在经费等教育资源严重向高等教育、城市教育的倾斜)。第九章,主要内容是提出了我国农村人力资本投资机制的重构思路及政策含义。构建社会主义和谐社会是我国政府根据经济社会发展新形势所提出的战略任务,如何实现这一战略任务,不同学科和领域的专家提出了不少有益的建议。从提高农村人力资本投资的角度来思考如何构建和谐社会尚属一项新的尝试。借助人力资本投资这一分析工具来研究和谐社会,其根本意图就在于搞清楚农村人力资本积累在构建和谐社会中的重要作用,以此来提高我们对农村人力资本积累重要性的认识和关注。本文提出了我国农村人力资本投资机制的重构思路与框架:包括投资主体、投资途径及激励机制三个主要方面。在积累主体上,要重视农村经济合作组织等的培育和发展;在投资途径上,要重视农村基础教育;在激励机制上,要重视政策激励与资金支持的有机结合,加大对农村学生(包括来自农村地区的大学生)的助学金和奖学金的支持力度。在此基础上提出有关加大农村教育投入、增加农民收入、改革农村政策等建议。本文可能取得的创新,列为以下几个方面:1、选题角度的创新。社会主义和谐社会构建问题是当前一项新的研究课题,从利益分配、制度安排、执政党的执政能力等社会学、政治学视角研究和谐社会的较多,从收入差距、经济效率等经济学视角研究的较少。而人力资本投资理论的现有研究思路为人力资本与收入分配之间的关系、人力资本与经济增长之间的关系,对这些关系的研究尚处在对各国实践的检验与证实阶段。将人力资本纳入和谐社会的研究框架——展示人力资本、收入分配(或经济增长)、和谐社会三者之间的关系——将使人力资本投资理论及社会主义和谐社会理论的研究视域均得到进一步拓展。2、理论体系的创新。现有的人力资本投资与积累理论的研究逻辑——人力资本与经济增长之间的关系、人力资本与收入分配之间的关系,解释的是人力资本投资对经济增长及收入分配的贡献。本文通过收入差距、经济效率和社会公平等环节,试图建构一个较新的理论研究体系——人力资本对和谐社会的作用机制理论:通过人力资本与收入差距、经济效率、社会公平等内在联系和相互作用,最终证实农村人力资本投资与积累水平低对构建社会主义和谐社会产生的重要影响。3、观点的创新。○1加大农村人力资本投资与积累具有双重效应:有利于提高农民素质、增加农民收入;有利于经济发展与社会和谐。从有利于经济发展与社会和谐的角度讲,农村人力资本投资与积累是一种具有经济学意义的公共产品。所以,农村人力资本投资与积累不仅仅是农民个人的事,也是政府的职责和义务。认识到这一点,政府在农村人力资本投资与积累政策上就会变被动为主动。○2农村人力资本积累水平不断提高,有利于增强社会凝聚力。农村人力资本投资与积累增加而获得的能力提升,不仅使农村居民因能力欠缺造成的与城市居民之间经济收入差距得到收敛,而且会消除在民主政治及其他领域的权利歧视,有利于进一步加强城乡间的各种互动关系——合作、沟通,实现社会心理和谐及人与人之间的和谐相处,对于增强社会凝聚力具有重要作用。○3提高农村人力资本投资与积累水平是构建社会主义和谐社会的本质要求和根本途径。实现社会公平,制度公平固然重要,但制度只是实现和谐社会的必要条件。在统筹城乡发展、消除二元体制、城乡制度政策趋于公平合理的条件下,如果以现有的城乡人力资本积累水平为公平起点,那么,农村居民收入与城市居民收入仍然会存在巨大差距。这是因为起点不同。对农村人力资本加大投入,提高农村人力资本投资与积累水平,提升农村居民各种能力特别是他们的知识、技能,是从起点平等上根除社会不公的路径依赖。④目前,在农村人力资本投资政策上,政府应以农村教育为切入点,加大投入力度,并对制度政策进行创新——对农村教育实施一系列捆绑式的教育计划,而不是简单的对农民发放补贴,将粗放型农村发展政策——即依靠外部力量推动的农村居民收入增长转变为集约型农村发展政策——依靠自身人力资本积累推动的农村居民收入增长。⑤在第九章,本文就农村人力资本投资与积累主体问题提出“社会力量参与农村人力资本投资尚未形成规模”的观点。在我国,由于农业组织化、市场化程度较低,市场的作用尚未充分得以实现,企业等组织在广大农村人力资本投资中的作用几乎为零。要构建新的农村人力资本积累机制,就必须发挥企业等在农村人力资本投资的作用。为此,实现农业产业化、组织化是当务之急。如果实现了农业高度产业化和组织化,那么,农民的人力资本投资就会出现新的来源和主体,那就是将农民组织起来的企业组织,该组织为了追逐最大化利益和应对外在的竞争压力,必然对其企业内部的员工——农民进行人力资本投资。一般情况下,企业对员工的人力资本投资,主要通过在职培训的形式来实现的。于是便形成了企业与农民之间的投资收益关系。通过教育培训,农民不仅自身素质和能力得到提高和完善,而且会对企业发展形成潜在的优势。如果企业发展了,可能会承担更多的社会责任,自办、资助教育及捐资助学等。今后一个时期,农村人力资本投资的一个主要任务就是大力发展农业经济合作化组织,使农民与该组织之间形成组织契约关系,从而填补农村人力资本投资主体的一项空白。⑥本文将能力分析方法(阿玛蒂亚·森创造的)与人力资本投资理论相结合,提出人力资本投资与积累水平的巨大差异是形成城乡居民不同能力的根本原因的观点。这种能力在本质上象征着起点平等,如果农村居民的这种能力得不到充分保障,不管制度如何公平,那么差距扩大将是必然的,并将对经济效率、社会流动、社会和谐等产生不利影响。更多还原

【Abstract】 In the new century, the Chinese government has shown great concern for two major problems---- three-dimensional rural issues concerning agriculture, countryside and farmers and social harmony. In the process of industrialization and urbanization, agriculture is increasingly becoming a weak industry and farmers are becoming a weak group. Rural stability and development has gradually become the focus and key to further economic and social development.“Three Rural Issues”is closely related to building a harmonious society. Its solution will be helpful to the social harmony and sustainable development. At present, China is a harmonious society on the whole, but there are still a lot of unfavorable factors affecting social harmony such as constantly widening of urban-rural income gap, serious imbalance in the regional development, lagging-behind of the social security system and a lot of potential unemployment. Among all of these issues and factors,“Three Rural Issues”is the major one which has effect on building a harmonious society because of its fundamental and overall characteristics. Its solution is also related to the relationship of interests from different quarters.Since“Three Rural Issues”is closely related to the policy and distribution of interests, re-adjustment of the system arrangement and the distribution of interests becomes the key to effectively solving“Three Rural Issues”and enhance the social harmony. In modern countries which applies market economy, there are two patterns of interests’distribution: one is the distribution of investment contribution, that is, the more one invests, the more one benefits; the other is the distribution of power, that is, the government makes distribution in different cliques, social strata and groups. The former is the conventional practice in market economy which helps stimulate economic growth, but results in the fact that the weak group in the society can only live on social assistance and financial payment of the government. The later helps realize the social equity and justice and narrow the gap. China is now in dilemma of balancing its economic growth and social equity. Farmers, the majority of weak groups,due to a lower level of human capital accumulation and the marginalization of policies, have less possibility and chances to independently get effective resources under the condition of market economy and narrow the gap between urban citizens and them. In this case, the government plays an indispensable role. Government’s positive positioning and careful planning becomes the key to solving”Three Rural Issues”.When we see a majority of peasants’efforts to increase income can only bring little effect after the implementation of policies to increase incomes one after another, we understand why”Three Rural Issues”exists and why there is a gap between cities and countrysides. The famous economist Schultz once said,“Whoever farms, as his forefathers did, can’t produce a large quantity of food no matter how fertile the land is and how hard he works, while those who master the scientific knowledge of soil, plants, animals and machinery can make rich products even in barren land.”These words are undoubtedly an fundamental enlightenment for us to solve“Three Rural Issues”, promote rural development and build a harmonious society.Then whether Chinese agriculture, countrysides and farmers now have the traditional characteristics as Schulz said? How to reform and solve it? They are problems in economics reflected by a growing number of scholars in recent years. Comparing Schulz’s human capital theory of agricultural development with domestic scholar’s thinking and views of urbanization and agricultural modernization, we can see their views tend to seek instant success and quick profit. China is a large agricultural country with a large population. If rural people are simply transferred from rural areas, not only the pressure on urban employment but also the area of wasteland will increase, which will be not conducive to the development of agriculture. However, the remaining laborer power must shift away in order to develop a modern industry and realize the urbanization. It appears to be a paradox. The key of the problem is what measures we should adopt to solve it. In recent years, Chinese government and academic circles have a consensus: economy can’t have a sustainable growth without farmers, and only to increase farmers’income steadily and constantly can stimulate effective demand and promote stability and development of investment and economy.So, how to increase farmers’incomes? There are a lot of specific solutions and measures such as adjusting income distribution, exempting from agricultural taxation, reducing or dispensing with tuition and fees of compulsory education in rural areas, increasing the government’s payment of rural financial transferring, and adjusting taxes and tax rates, curbing the corruption, controlling the industrial monopoly. However, we can easily find that these measures and methods have a clear defect, that is, to increase farmers’incomes relies more on the outside force (or the government). This dissertation tries to look for solutions to the problem of“Three Rural Issues”itself, that is, to search for programs and methods to narrow the gap and build a harmonious society from the perspective of the rural investment in human capital improvement of farmers’ability to get incomes. Of course, the concrete implementation is still inseparable from the positive activity of a government.At the turn of the century, many new changes and situations has happened in the domestic economy and social development. From the economic point of view, from 1978 to 2008, economy in China has had a sustainable growth for 30 years, with the average annual GDP growth of more than 8.9%, and the sustained time of growth is also rare. However, it is the rapid economic growth rather than a balanced one that results in the serious imbalance of the distribution of economic interests in space and population. In terms of regions, (1) the regional economy develops with imbalance, particularly with the widening gap between the west and east; (2) economy in urban and rural areas develops with imbalance. Farmers’incomes grow slowly, and the gap between urban and rural areas continues to widen. Gini Factor of urban and rural citizens’incomes per capita has approached the warning point. In terms of population, (1) the social wealth tends to accumulate among a small number of people, and the differentiation of social classes turns to be more obvious; (2) the employment pressure is tense, and the invisible and potential population of unemployment becomes visible and makes a one-way flow towards cities with the surplus rural labor resulting in the tense employment pressure in cities. In terms of society, (1) the gradual widening of economic income gap and the lagging behind of system reform lead to the gradual socialization of unfair distribution; (2) such unreasonable income distributions as corruption lessen the social acceptability so that the psychology of some social members, especially weak social groups, transforms in a way not conducive to social stability and harmonious. According to the international experience, China is in the period of opportunity of strategic development. the course of development in some countries and regions shows that after the per capita GDP exceeded﹩1,000, the economic and social development entered a critical stage. This phase has two possibilities: First, economy and society will develop by properly handling problems and contradictions in economic development; Second, the society goes into the high-risk stage with its tense social structure and social contradictions resulting from the simple pursuit of economic growth and the ignorance of plus problems and contradictions in economic growth.From an international perspective, we are confronted with the tremendous pressure of obvious economical advantages of science and technology in developed countries. On the one hand, today’s world is facing the great changes and reforms. It is true that multi-polarity of the world is irreversible, economic globalization further develops, global and regional cooperation is also in the ascendant, states relate to each other more closely, the balance of international powers develops in a direction conducive to the world peace, and the international situation is generally stable. Those above provide external conditions for our country to gain more time and better environment of development. On the other hand, the accelerate revolution of science and technology and the obvious advantages in developed countries lay enormous stress on us. More seriously drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe make the international communist movement suffer tremendous setbacks. Afterwards some western hostile forces don’t yet give up the attempts of "Cold War" and "Peaceful Evolution", in addition to the tendency of closer economic exchanges, which disquiets various trends of thought and so has a major impact on people’s values. The existence of such problems makes us vigilant in peace time after we have achieved a lot and clearly recognize that the complicated and changeable international situation at the beginning of the new century bring us challenges in the national security. We can truly maintain and lengthen the important“period of opportunity of strategic development”and realize the great historic cause of rejuvenization of the Chinese nation only by carefully clarifying, correctly understanding and properly dealing with these challenges.The Communist Party and the government, standing high and seeing far and having innovative ideas, put forward and make some strategic objectives and planning such as building a new socialist countryside and building a socialist harmonious society. Therefore it is a useful theoretical exploration to study the harmonious society from the perspective of human capital and it has a practical significance.Since the birth of economics, the relationship among nations, governments and markets has become an eternal topic. With the function of market mechanism rather than of government, weak groups in the society will be marginalize by the interests resulting from economic growth, which unavoidably cause problems such as“Three Rural Issues”, gap of incomes, unfairness of society and imbalance of economic efficiency.Then what are the focus points and entry points for governments to solve the problems above? This dissertation takes the theories of investment in human capital and accumulation as explanatory tools and means, and the present condition of investment in human capital and accumulation in our rural areas as a basis, on the assumption that there are only two groups of urban and rural citizens in China and they have different levels of human capital accumulation and scales of investment .By applying the laws of investment and profit, the dissertation will testify that the widening of the income gap between urban and rural areas resulting not only from the questions of history and policies, but also from the lower level of human capital accumulation and smaller scale of investment in rural areas than in urban areas, as one of the main reasons.Therefore, this dissertation is a highly practical and challenging task by basing itself upon the problem of rural human capital accumulation and investment issues under the new trend of building a socialist harmonious society.In terms of structure and logic relationship, this dissertation is divided into five parts: Chapter One or Introduction belongs to the first part, raising questions and research perspectives; Chapter Two and Three belong to the second part, raising the theoretical and practical basis of assumption; From Chapter Four to Chapter Seven belong to the third part, making a series of empirical and practical analysis of theoretical assumption; Chapter Eight belongs to the fourth part, probing into the basic experience and practices of the foreign investment and accumulation in rural human capital; Chapter Nine belongs to the fifth part, putting forward the restructuring of the investment and accumulation in rural human capital and the implications of the policy.Chapter One Introduction. It includes the present background at home and abroad where problems are raised and the basic thought, significance, main methods and logic structure arrangements of the study. It points out the seriousness of“Three Rural Issues”, the importance of solving this problem and its effect on building a socialist harmonious society. Since the opening up and reform in China, the fundamental reason why the income gap between urban and rural areas continue to widen and farmers can’t increase their incomes effectively is that“Three Rural Issues”has been marginalized gradually by reform achievements under the government-led reform mode. The way-out is to change the government’s short-term activity in solving“Three Rural Issues”and form the strategic route to solve it, that is, to enlarge the scale of investment in rural human capital and transform the extensive rural development policy (increase rural citizens’incomes by depending on external power) into the intensive rural development policy (increase rural citizens’incomes by depending on its own human capital accumulation).Chapter Two, relevant basic theories and research framework. The theoretical research framework in this dissertation is posed on the basis of a general statement of present studies of the relevant basic theories at home and abroad. The early thinking of analysis of investment in human capital theory mainly focuses on the following two aspects: the relationship between the human capital and economic growth and between the human capital and income distribution. The former clarifies that the way of the investment in human capital and the stock of human capital plays an important role in economic growth and wage income; the latter makes a study of income distribution by applying the method of investment in human capital, and establishes a interests model of investment in human capital, and puts forward interests Function of human capital, and thinks the income gap among laborers related to the time of their education and work experience, and proposes the concept of "catching up with" the period when inspecting the effect of job-training on lifelong income modes. Domestic studies of investment in human capital highlight in the impact of the income gap, which generally considers regional disparities, the gap between urban and rural areas, and the gap between East and West closely related to the investment in human capital. According to the logic thinking during the early study of investment in human capital theory, this dissertation develops and further puts forward the effect of investment in human capital on a harmonious society.Chapter Three, a comprehensive study of the investment and accumulation of rural human capital in present China. Theoretical research can not be made without practice. The present conditions of investment and accumulation of rural human capital in China provide the basis and foundation for the research of this dissertation. First is the unreasonable mechanism of accumulation and investment in human capital, which is based on the differentiated government policies of investment and accumulation of human capital in urban and rural areas. Rural citizens invest and accumulate human capital almost completely by depending on its limited resources, while urban citizens can get more supports from the government. Second, the accumulation of human capital stays at a low level for a long time. Limited supports of government, coupled with rural citizens’inadequate ability, the accumulation of rural human capital stays at a low level for a long time, as well as a small stock and a small increasing amount.Chapter Four, influence of rural investment in human capital on building the harmonious society from the aspect of the income gap of investment in human capital between urban and rural areas. It will mainly reveal the effect of low-level accumulation of rural investment in human capital on the income gap between urban and rural areas. Since the investment in human capital is proportional to profits, the level of accumulation, the economic chance and the profits increase with the bigger investment. Therefore even if the government rearranges the institution for the purpose of benefiting rural residents, the income gap between urban and rural residents is still in the first stage of Kuznets’inverted "U" hypothesis ---- non-expanding stage. Chinese government attaches great importance to the increasing income gap between urban and rural areas and has taken such measures as reducing or exempting agricultural tax to increase farmers’incomes. But the result is less effective. This article holds that the fundamental reason lies in the fact that policies can only produce external functions to increase farmers’incomes; however, only relying on external forces is only a short-term activity and will not help fundamentally solve the problem of income gap between urban and rural areas. Governments must stand on a strategic height, take educational input as an entry point, and enlarge investment in human capital in the rural areas so as to get twice the result with half the effort and ultimately defuse factors of disharmony triggered by the widening income gap.Chapter Five, influence of rural investment in human capital on building the harmonious society from the aspect of the economic efficiency. It mainly reveals the impact of a low-level accumulation of human capital in rural areas on economic efficiency. Studies of the impact of a low-level accumulation of human capital in rural areas on economic efficiency in current theoretical fields focus on the loss of economic efficiency. Because of the great gap between the low-level accumulation of human capital in rural areas and that in urban areas, the income gap widens constantly. On the basis of Consumption Function Theory, rural citizens, unlike urban citizens, play a role in limiting the growth of economic efficiency in terms of consumption structures and levels. Savings increase, while consumptions decrease. Deformed pulling models take place in economic growth, that is, domestic demands are in the shortage (particularly from rural residents’living consumption), while investment and exporting go up. The result of empirical analysis is generally identical with that of observation by means of experience.Chapter Six, influence of rural investment in human capital on building the harmonious society from the aspect of social equity. It mainly reveals the effect of a low-level accumulation of rural human capital on social equity. In fact, a low-level accumulation of rural human capital not only damages economic efficiency but also hits the social equity. In the thirty years of opening-up and reform, we basically follow the philosophical thinking mode of maximizing the social welfare by "giving priority to efficiency with due consideration to fairness". In general, the overall level of social welfare has indeed been significantly improved. However, the relative welfare of rural citizens decrease under the condition of increasing absolute welfare, and a considerable number of rural residents go into the cycle of "syndrome of relative poverty”unconsciously. The normal balanced social mobility is broken and the mobility of social strata tends to be rigid, resulting in a series of social contradictions and conflicts of interests and producing a profound impact on the fairness and justice and on the building-up of a harmonious society. The fairness of the starting point of paying attention to the accumulation of rural human capital is more important than that of the process and of the result. There are three factors involved in examining the negative impact aroused by the low-level cycle of accumulating rural human capital from the aspect of social justice: one is to make a historic investigation of the documentary heritage relevant to social equity; second is to prove the relationship between rural human capital accumulation and social equity; third is to focus on the negative effect of rural human capital accumulation on social equity.Chapter Seven, the empirical research on the relevance of the rural investment in human capital and harmonious society. It mainly reveals the effect of investment and accumulation of rural human capital on the building-up of a harmonious society under the functional mechanism of income gap. The factors arousing social conflicts and instability are complex and intertwined. However, the fundamental conflict is that of interests, and other conflicts are subordinate to it. Based on the conflict of interests, it is proved from the empirical observation that the social psychology changes along with the income gap and finally damages the social harmony by applying such methods as analysis of economic activity and chess-playing.Chapter Eight, the practice and application of foreign mechanism of accumulating rural human capital. China is a large agricultural country with farmers in the vast majority of the population, and the social economy in rural areas is relatively backward.“Three Rural Issues”concerning the hardship of farmers, the poverty of countryside and the danger of agriculture has become the biggest obstacle of restricting our process of industrialization, urbanization and modernization. Our country can make a faster and better development only by developing the industry and agriculture at the same time and learn how to walk in two feet. Though different countries in the world have different social systems and different levels of economic development, it has been recognized by economists that some countries especially advanced countries attach great importance to agricultural development. They also attach great importance to the development of rural education except that they give preference to rural areas in institutions, policies and welfare and gain the precious experience in speeding up the accumulation of rural human capital. It has a great practical significance to enhance the rural education and the level of accumulating rural human capital in our country by studying and borrowing the experience of those countries especially advanced countries in agricultural education and accumulation of human capital. This chapter makes a comprehensive introduction of the basic practice of accumulation mechanism of rural human capital in five types of countries as the developed countries in Europe and America, Latin American countries, the Asian newly industrialized countries, countries in transformation and less developed countries. Among them, there are two opposite approaches worthy of our attention, first is the highly attention-giving to basic education in the developed countries in Europe and America (on the parts of legislation, financial supports and so on); second is the ignorance of basic education in Latin American countries and less developed countries (financial resource of education give preference to education in colleges and in urban areas).Chapter Nine, restructure and policy implications of investment mechanism of rural human capital in China. It is a strategic task raised by our government to build a socialist harmonious society according to the new situation of economic and social development. Experts in different disciplines and fields put forward many useful suggestions on how to realize the strategic task. It is a new attempt to think of measures to increase rural investment in human capital from the perspective of building a harmonious society. The basic purpose of applying the investment in rural human capital as a tool lies in clarifying the important function of rural human capital accumulation in the process of building a harmonious society, so as to increase our concerns about the importance of rural human capital accumulation. The important frame of the investment mechanism of rural human capital in China includes subjects of investment, channels of investment and incentive mechanisms. In terms of subjects, great importance should be attached to the cultivation and development of rural economic cooperative organizations; in terms of incentive mechanisms, great importance should be attached to the combination of policy incentives and financial supports. Moreover supports of aided grants and scholarship should be given to rural students (including college students from rural areas) in a larger scale. Based on those above, suggestions on increasing input of rural education, raising farmers’incomes and reforming rural policies have been put forward.The innovations of this dissertation can be summarized in several aspects as follows:1. Innovative topic selection. The selection of topics is the key to write a good paper and make an innovation. Perspectives can be diverse in studying how to build a harmonious society. At present, most makes their studies in the perspective of the distribution of benefits, institutional arrangements, the ruling party’s ability to govern and so on. The present thinking of the theory of investment in human capital is about the relationship between human capital and income distribution (or economic growth) within the limitation of the inspection and proof in other countries. To include human capital in the study of building a harmonious society-----the relationship among human capital, income distribution (or economic growth) and a harmonious society ---- will expand the theory of investment in human capital and the perspective of research on a harmonious society2. Innovative theoretical system. The present logic of research on the theory of human capital investment and accumulation is the relationship between human capital and economic growth, between human capital and income distribution. Based on that logic this dissertation builds a huger theoretical research system----the mechanism of human capital acting on the harmonious society: the conclusion is drawn that the level of rural human capital accumulation makes an important impact on building a harmonious socialist society with the interrelation and interaction between human capital and the income gap, economic efficiency and social equity and so on.3. Innovative views.①Human capital investment in rural areas has dual characteristics: It is conducive to improving the quality of farmers and to the social stability and harmonious development. In this sense, investment and accumulation of human capital in rural areas are public products. Therefore, investment and accumulation of human capital in rural areas are not only concerning individual farmer, but also the government’s responsibility and obligation. Having recognized it, the government will changed from a passive one into active.②With the increasing level of rural human capital accumulation, scientific and cultural quality and moral quality of farmers will increase constantly. Farmers can not only create the folk arts and culture loved by them but also offer intelligence supports to the scientific guiding ideology and policies and systems made by governments through farmers’practice and experience. At the same time, the eliminated ideological discrimination due to the equality of ability is conducive to further strengthening cooperation and communication between the urban and rural residents. To realize the harmony of social psychology and interpersonal harmony has an important effect on enhancing social cohesion.③Investment in human capital in rural areas is the fundamental requirement and approach to build a socialist harmonious society. The equity of systems is an important condition for building a harmonious society. If farmers’incomes still has a great gap with urban citizens under the condition of fair and reasonable system, equal competitive process, we must look for the root from the fair beginning ----whether the level or the ability of human capital accumulation is equal.④Innovative proposals of policies. At present, the government should take rural education as an entry point and increase its input and innovate its policies concerning the policy of investment of human capital in rural areas ---- implement a series of bundling plans of the rural education, rather than simply give subsidies to farmers, transform extensive policies of rural development ----relying on external forces to promote the growth of income of rural residents, into intensive policies of rural development ---- relying on its own human capital accumulation to promote the growth of income of rural residents.⑤In Chapter Nine, the view of“it hasn’t formed into scale that social forces participate in the rural investment in human capital”is put forward concerning the main issues of the investment and accumulation of human capital in rural areas. In our country, the function of market hasn’t been fully realized and the function of organizations such as companies is almost nothing in the rural human capital investment due to the low level of organizing and market of agriculture. To build new accumulation mechanisms of rural human capital, companies function in rural human capital investment should be brought into full play. Therefore it’s the top priority task to realize the high industrialization and organization of agriculture. If the high industrialization and organization of agriculture has been realized, the new origin and subject in rural human capital investment will be discovered, that is, the enterprise by organizing farmers, which will make investment in human capital for their employees or farmers in order to seek maximum profits and face the external competitive pressures. Generally the investment in human capital of enterprises is realized by training farmers at work, so that the relation of investment interests comes into being. Training farmers not only improves quality and ability of farmers, but also bring potential advantage for the development of enterprises. Enterprises will take more responsibilities with its development, such as building schools on their own, assist the education and donate money. In the following period, one major task of investment in rural human capital is to highly develop co-operational organizations of rural economy and form the contract relation between farmers and organizations so as to fill the blank of researches on the subjects of investment in rural human capital.⑥C This dissertation will combine Capacity Analysis Method (by Amartya Sen) with the theory of human capital investment, and regard the great gap of the human capital investment as the basic reason (ignorant of other reasons such as heredity) why rural and urban citizens have different capacities. Since the capacity by nature symbolizes the equality of the starting point, if the capacity can’t be fully guaranteed the gap will unavoidably widen so as to have negative impact on economic efficiency, social mobility, and social harmony.更多还原