本文主旨在探討教育發展是否能減緩所得不均成長的速度，因此，本文將分別利用三種不同的教育發展指標，25歲以上人口的平均受教年數、高等教育入學率以及教育支出占GDP的成長率，並且以門檻回歸模型分析，探討其與gini係數成長率的關係。

本文一共使用了99個樣本國家，研究時間從1980年到2012年，以橫斷面資料型態來做探討，根據三個不同的教育發展指標，我們得到了三個不同之結論；以25歲以上人口的平均受教年數作為教育發展指標時，樣本國家將以門檻值為界分為兩塊，且教育發展程度與所得不均之關聯為正向關係，表示平均受教年數越高，所得不均的成長速度越快。其二，當使用高等教育入學率作為教育發展指標時，我們得到了雙門檻之效果，使樣本國家分為三塊，高所得、中低所得及低所得國家，除了低所得國家為反向關係外，其餘仍維持在正相相關，表示最低所得國家能夠透過增加高等入學率來減緩所得不均惡化的速度。第三種教育發展指標為教育支出占GDP的成長率，在此我們也得到了雙門檻之效果，一樣將樣本國家分為三塊，高所得、中低所得及低所得國家，所得到之結果為高所得與低所得國家其教育發展程度與所得不均之關聯為反向關係，唯獨中低所得國家為正向關係。

根據本文研究之結果我們可以發現，雖然提升教育程度能夠改善一個國家人力資本的品質，進而使國家的經濟更加進步，不過卻可能相對造成所得不均的差異日漸擴大及嚴重，因此國家的教育政策，必須依據國家本身經濟狀況的不同，而給予不同的政策建議，那才能有效減緩所得分配不均的惡化。

This empirical study uses the threshold model developed by Hansen (2000) to analyze whether education can slow down or speed the growth rate of income inequality. Three educational development indicators are employed: average years of total schooling over 25 years old, tertiary enrollment ratio and the growth rate of public expenditure on education as the percentage of GDP, to discuss their relationship with the growth rate of gini coefficient. The research is applied to the whole world, but we could only collect the 99 countries’ data available. 

GDP per capita is used as the threshold variable. First of all, When taking average years of total schooling over 25 years old as educational development indicator, we find that the world will be divided into two blocks, and the educational development effect on income inequality is positive, no matter in high or low income countries. Second, when using tertiary enrollment ratio as educational development indicator, the world is divided into three blocks: high-income, middle-income and low-income countries and we find that there is negative effect of education on income inequality only in the low-income countries. Third, when the growth rate of public expenditure on education as the percentage of GDP is used as the educational development indicator, similarly, the world is divided into three blocks, we find that there are negative effects in the high and low income countries but a positive effect in the middle-income countries.

Based on the results, it suggests that if a government concerns about the income inequality problem, it should take the appropriate education policy, depending on its economic situation.

目錄
目錄	I
表目錄	II
圖目錄	III
第一章	緒論	1
第一節	研究動機與目的	1
第二節	研究方法與架構	3
第二章	文獻回顧	5
第一節	所得不均的嚴重性	5
第二節	教育發展的重要性	6
第三節	教育發展能夠有效改善所得不均	6
第四節	教育發展無法有效改善所得不均	8
第五節	小結	9
第三章	實證方法	12
第一節	Hansen門檻迴歸模型	13
第二節	資料來源與敘述	16
第四章	實證分析	24
第一節	教育發展指標為25歲以上人口的平均受教年數	24
第二節	教育發展指標為高等教育入學率	27
第三節	教育發展指標為教育支出占GDP成長率	31
第五章	結論與建議	35
參考文獻	37
附錄	41

表目錄
表2.1 教育發展與所得不均相關文獻關係	10
表3.1 樣本國家	21
表3.2 敘述統計表	23
表3.3 相關係數矩陣	23
表4.1 吉尼係數成長率與25歲以上人口受教年數之門檻關係	26
表4.2 吉尼係數成長率與高等教育入學率之門檻關係(一)	29
表4.3 吉尼係數成長率與高等教育入學率之門檻關係(二)	30
表4.4 吉尼係數成長率與教育支出成長率之門檻關係(一)	33
表4.5 吉尼係數成長率與教育支出成長率之門檻關係(二)	34
附表1 國家別－教育發展指標為25歲以上人口受教年數	41
附表2 國家別－教育發展指標為高等教育入學率	42
附表3 國家別－教育發展指標為教育支出成長率	43

圖目錄
附圖1 三種教育指標關係圖	44

參考文獻
王保進. (1989). 經濟、教育發展、政治民主與所得分配暨國家發展指. (碩士論文, 國立政治大學) , 1-110.
莊希豐. (1999). 國內外人力資本與經濟成長—臺灣實證分析. 淡江人文社會學刊, 4, 65-90.
莊希豐.、陳亞為. (2011). 貿易開放與所得不均: 以門檻迴歸法分析. 經濟研究 (Taipei Economic Inquiry), 47(2), 185-224.
黃芳玫. (2011). 臺灣人力資本與薪資不均之研究. 臺灣經濟預測與政策, 42(1), 1-37.
Ang, J. B. (2008). Finance and inequality: The case of India. CCMA Working Paper 18.
Barro, R. J. (2001). Human capital and growth. The American Economic Review, 12-17.
Beck, T., Demirguc-Kunt, and Levine, R. (2007). Finance, inequality and the 
poor. Journal of Economic Growth, 12(1), 27-49.
Chan, K. S. (1993). Consistency and limiting distribution of the least squares estimator of a continuous threshold autoregressive model. The Annals of Statistics, 12(1), 520-533.
Claessens, S. and Perotti, E. (2007). Finance and inequality: Channels and evidence. Journal of Comparative Economics, 35(4), 748-773.
Coons, J. E., Clune, W. H. and Sugarman, S. D. (1970). Private wealth and public education. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Davies, R. B. (1987). Hypothesis testing when a nuisance parameter is present only under the alternative. Biometrika, 74(1), 33-43.
Digdowiseiso, K. (2009). Education inequality, economic growth, and income inequality: Evidence from Indonesia, 1996-2005. Munich Personal RePEc Archive.
Gall, T. (2008). Lotteries, inequality, and market imperfection: Galor and Zeira go gambling. Economic Theory, 34(2), 359-382.
Glomm, G. and Ravikumar, B. (2003). Public education and income inequality. European Journal of Political Economy, 19(2), 289-300.
Greenwood, J. and Jovanovic, B. (1990). Financial development, growth, and the distribution of income. Journal of Political Economy, 98, 1076-1107.
Gregorio, J. D. and Lee, J. W. (2002). Education and income inequality: new evidence from cross‐country data. Review of Income and Wealth, 48(3), 395-416.
Hansen, B. E. (1996). Inference when a nuisance parameter is not identified under the null hypothesis. Econometrica, 64(2), 413-430.
Hansen, B. E. (2000). Sample splitting and threshold estimation. Econometrica, 68(3), 575-603.
Hendel, I., Shapiro, J. and Willen, P. (2005). Educational opportunity and income inequality. Journal of Public Economics, 89(5–6), 841-870.
Kim, D. and Lin, S. (2011). Nonlinearity in the financial development–income 
inequality nexus. Journal of Comparative Economics, 39(3), 310-325.
Kuznets, S. (1955). Economic growth and income inequality. The American Economic Review, 45(1), 1-28.
Lin, C. H. A. (2007). Education expansion, educational inequality, and income inequality: evidence from Taiwan, 1976–2003. Social Indicators Research, 80(3), 601-615.
Lippi, F. and Swank, O. H. (1996). Do policymakers' distribution desires lead to an inflationary bias? Journal of Policy Modeling, 18(1), 109-116
Park, K. H. (1996). Educational expansion and educational inequality on income distribution. Economics of Education Review,15(1), 51-58.
Rosen, S. (1983). Specialization and human capital. Journal of Labor Economics, 1, 43-49.
Schultz, T. W. (1961). Investment in human capital. The American Economic Review, 51, 1-17.
Schultz, T. W. (1963). The economic value of education.Columbia University Press New York.
Spence, M. (1973). Job market signaling. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 87, 355-374.
Stiglitz, J. E. (1973). Education and inequality. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 409(1), 135-145.
Sylwester, K. (2002). Can education expenditures reduce income inequality? Economics of Education Review, 21(1), 43-52.