Since the 1970s, the economics of education has been greatly developed in the world and has a certain position in the international academic circles. Many developing countries have learned from western educational economics, and a number of scholars have emerged all over the world, and books and papers on educational economics have emerged one after another.

However, just as the economics of education spread to all countries in the world, a serious economic crisis occurred in the west, which affected many developed countries and some developing countries, and the economy began to slump. Some countries put money into education, hoping to promote economic recovery through education, but it has never been successful. The sluggish economic situation conflicts with the continuous expansion of education, and various problems that cannot be revealed and solved by human capital theory have emerged. People gradually realize the limitations of human capital theory and try to get rid of its bondage, and adopt new methods to analyze the relationship between education and economy, which stimulates the new development of human capital theory.

As a result, some new theories about educational economy came into being, among which three have great influence: screening hypothesis theory, labor market division theory and socialization theory, also known as the second generation human capital theory.