2018年经济学人 人力资本:公立大学的学费问题(1)

 

Becker himself highlighted research findings that one quarter of the rise in per-person incomes from 1929 to 1982 in America was because of increases in schooling¹.

贝克尔本人强调了美国的人均收入在1929年到1982间的提高中的四分之一是因为教育的发展的研究发现。

Much of the rest, he insisted, was a result of harder-to-measure gains in human capital such as on-the-job training and better health.

他坚称，余下的大都是人力资本中那些更加难以衡量的收获的结果，如在职培训和更好的健康。

He was also fond of pointing to the success of Asian economies such as South Korea and Taiwan, endowed with few natural resources other than their populations, as proof of the value of investing in human capital—and in particular of building up education systems.

他还喜欢把南韩和中国台湾这些除了人口之外没有被赋予多少自然资源的亚洲经济体的成功，看成人力资本投资——尤其是构建教育体系投资——的价值的证明。

Becker's original analysis focused on the private benefits to students, but economists² who followed in his footsteps expanded their field of study to include the broader social gains from having well-educated populations.

贝克尔的原创分析把重点放在了学生的私人收获上面，但是，追随他的脚步的经济学家把他们的研究领域扩到到了拥有受过良好教育的人口的更为广泛的社会收获方面。

The importance of human capital is now taken for granted.

如今，人力资本的重要性已经不言而喻。

What is more controversial is the question of how to cultivate it.

更具争议性的是如何培育人力资本的问题。

For those inclined to support a bigger state, one interpretation³ of Becker's analysis is that the government ought to pour money into education and make it widely available at a low cost.

对于倾向于支持大政府的人来说，对贝克尔分析的一种解释是，政府应当把钱投入教育，使之可以广泛地以低成本获得。

For a conservative, the conclusion might be that the private gains from education are so big that students should bear the costs of tuition.

对于保守人士而言，结论可能是，教育的私人收获之大，使得学生应该承担学费成本。

Although Becker's academic writings rarely strayed into policy prescriptions⁴, his popular writings—a monthly Businessweek column that began in the 1980s and blog posts in later years—offer a measure of his views.

尽管贝克尔的学术著作几乎从不涉及政策处方，但是，他的通俗文章——始于上世纪80年代的《商业周刊》月度专栏以及后来日子里的博客文章——却提供了对他的观点的一种衡量标准。

For starters, he talked of “bad inequality” but also “good inequality”, an unfashionable idea today.

首先，他谈到过“坏的不平等”，也曾论及“好的不平等”，这一当今不流行的观点。

Higher earnings⁵ for scientists, doctors and computer programmers help motivate students to tackle these difficult subjects, in the process pushing knowledge forward; from this perspective, inequality contributes to human capital.

科学家、医生和计算机程序员的越来越高的收入有助于激发学生涉足这些困难的课题，在这一过程中推动知识进步；从这个角度来看，不平等有助于人力资本。

But when inequality gets too extreme, the schooling and even the health of children from poor families suffer, with their parents unable adequately to provide for them.

但是，当不平等变得过于极端，学校教育乃至贫困家庭的孩子都会因为父母不能足够地提供给他们而深受其害。

Inequality of this sort depresses human capital, leaving society worse off.

这种不平等让人力资本贬值，使社会每况愈下。

As for the debate about whether government-funded universities should raise tuition fees, Becker thought that only fair, given that their graduates could expect higher lifetime earnings.

至于由政府资助的大学是否应当提高学费的争论，贝克尔认为，考虑到它们的毕业生可以期望更高的终身收入，这是唯一公平的。

Rather than subsidising students who go on to become bankers or lawyers, he argued that it would be more productive for the government to fund research and development.

他指出，与其资助今后将成为银行家或者律师的学生，政府把资金用于研发会更加高效。

1 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

2 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

4 prescriptions   

药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划

参考例句：

• The hospital of traditional Chinese medicine installed a computer to fill prescriptions. 中医医院装上了电子计算机来抓药。
• Her main job was filling the doctor's prescriptions. 她的主要工作就是给大夫开的药方配药。

5 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。