Recently, Associate Professor Liu Pan (Corresponding Author) from Beijing Normal University Business School (BNUBS) co-authored a paper titled Public Educational Investment, Household Human Capital Investment and Fertility Decisions with Professor Luo Chuliang from the School of Labor Economics, Capital University of Economics and Business. This paper has been officially published in Issue 6, 2026 of Economic Research Journal.

Paper Citation

Luo Chuliang, Liu Pan. Public Educational Investment, Household Human Capital Investment and Fertility Decisions. Economic Research Journal, 2026, Issue 6.

Table of Contents Link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/jlHy7hpSicwjMGWLDoaRHg

Abstract

Access to educational opportunities exerts profound impacts on household fertility choices, educational behaviors and income inequality. By incorporating unequal allocation of public educational resources into an overlapping generations model and endogenizing fertility and educational decisions of heterogeneous households, this paper explores how public educational outlays shape household human capital investment, reproductive behaviors and income distribution. The empirical results reveal that expanded public educational investment generates a substitution effect on families’ private educational spending and parental childcare time, and lifts the total fertility rate by cutting child-rearing costs. Equalized public education significantly improves low-human-capital households’ access to public educational resources and substantially narrows income disparity. Furthermore, reducing time costs of childcare and fostering positive attitudes toward childbearing also play pivotal roles in boosting the aggregate fertility rate.

This research delivers three vital policy implications. First, authorities shall refine public education policies. Scaling up public educational investment underpins the development of a strong education power, alleviates household financial and time burdens of child-rearing, and builds an education supply system adaptive to demographic shifts. Parallel efforts to advance balanced education can bridge educational gaps between urban and rural areas as well as different schools, and optimize income distribution through educational equity. Second, policymakers should mitigate families’ time pressure arising from childcare. A universal affordable childcare system shall be established by coordinating governmental and market providers to reconcile career development and fertility via socialized childcare services. Intelligent technologies can streamline domestic work, freeing up time for parent-child interaction and human capital accumulation. Third, the traditional culture of reciprocal intergenerational altruism shall be promoted to strengthen intergenerational support and emotional bonds, cultivate positive fertility perceptions, and consolidate a cultural foundation for lifting national fertility levels.

About the Corresponding Author

Liu Pan

Associate Professor, Beijing Normal University Business School (BNUBS)

Ph.D. in Economics, Iowa State University

Her research focuses on macroeconomics and labor economics. She has published more than ten papers in reputable domestic and international journals including Economic Research Journal, Management World, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and Journal of Mathematical Economics. She presides over one Youth Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and two Humanities and Social Sciences Research Projects sponsored by the Ministry of Education. Her honors include Outstanding Supervisor for Undergraduate Graduation Theses in Beijing Municipal Universities and the Liyun Outstanding Young Faculty Award of Beijing Normal University.

Contributed by Liu Pan

Edited by Sun Yue

Reviewed by Hu Conghui