Is Hierarchical Education Investment Synergistic? Evidence from China’s Investment in General and Advanced Education

Considering the continuous promotion of education investment to economic growth, governments of all countries are increasing education investment to build the hierarchical education system. However, whether general education and advanced education investment in the hierarchical education system has synergistic effect is doubted. Based on the endogenous human capital accumulation model, this paper introduces the variable of college entrance examination enrollment rate to construct an economic growth model including hierarchical education investment. Using Chinese provincial panel data from 1997 to 2020, this paper examines the impact of hierarchical education investment on economic growth and also the synergistic effect of general education and advanced education investment. This paper finds that general education investment has a negative effect on economic growth while advanced education investment can promote economic growth. However, due to the existence of the special selection system of college entrance examination, general education and advanced education investment did not play a synergistic effect.