Abstract
This paper mainly studies the impact of general high
education and secondary vocational education on people's non-cognitive ability,
which thus influences the consumption decision-making mechanism of floating
population. After controlling individual characteristics of the sample (age,
gender, household registration, etc.) and income, this article empirically
finds that the consumption ratio of floating population graduate from secondary
vocational school is higher than that from senior high school, and after
further controlling the uncertainty of future revenue and expenditure, this
result remains significant. The difference in non-cognitive ability brought by
different educational experiences can explain to a certain extent the
phenomenon that the consumption proportion of the floating population with vocational
education is higher. This article finds that vocational school graduates do a
better job in self-control ability, and it is easier to think that there is
difference between themselves and local residents, which shows a stronger
demand for social recognition. This socially recognized demand is manifested in
the fact that vocational education can significantly narrow the gap in
consumption levels between migrants and local residents. Meanwhile, this
narrowing effect shows a non-linear increase as the income increases.