To analyze and define the nature of educational products, we should distinguish between compulsory education and non-compulsory education. Compulsory education belongs to public goods. Compulsory education is the behavior of binding the educated family and government through legislation. Compulsory education is a kind of compulsory education. Educated families have the obligation to let their children receive education, but if it is compulsory education, it must be free, that is, the government should provide compulsory education for free, otherwise parents can say that they can't afford the tuition and refuse to undertake the obligation of children's education. Therefore, compulsory education is compulsory and free. Compulsory education cannot be provided through market exchange, and its supply and demand are regulated by law, not by market supply and demand and price tuition. It can be seen that the consumption of compulsory education is not exclusive, the supply is not easily excluded, and it has a wide range of social benefits.

Non-compulsory education, as far as China is concerned, includes post-junior high school education, higher education, adult education and so on, and its nature belongs to quasi-public goods. First, it is exclusive in consumption. Since it is compulsory universal education, it is not education for all peers. In the case of limited educational opportunities, one person's education will exclude another person's educational opportunities. Second, it has external or social benefits. When one person is educated, others and the whole society can benefit. Of course, its exclusiveness in consumption is conditional and relative. Due to the high cost of non-compulsory education, especially higher education, it is impossible for the government to provide free services to all peers at a certain level of economic development, which leads to the exclusiveness brought by charging tuition fees and controlling the "ration" of enrollment.

Chinese scholars define the attributes of educational products as follows:

1, based on the way of providing educational services, it is considered that the same level and type of education are different because of the different ways of providing them.

But have different properties.

1) Educational services with the nature of pure public goods. Compulsory education, special education, radio and television and other forms of public education and national civil servant education.

2) Educational services that are basically public goods. Such as all kinds of institutions of higher learning, secondary schools, vocational and technical schools invested by the government and all kinds of adult and preschool education funded by the government.

3) Educational services with the nature of quasi-public goods. Such as schools and training courses run by social groups, collective organizations, associations or enterprises for their members.

4) Educational services of purely private products and services. For example, the services provided by individuals as tutors, private schools and vocational training courses are regarded as purely private products, not only because they are strictly exclusive, but also because all the expenses of educational services are provided by those who enjoy such educational services.

5) Educational services with the nature of pure private products. Different from the educational service with the nature of pure private products, if individuals get a certain amount of subsidies in the process of running schools and appropriately lower the charging standards in the process of charging, then this educational service can be considered as a private product.

2. Starting from the consumption characteristics of educational products, the attributes of products are defined, and education is considered as a quasi-public product.

Judging from the direct consumption effect of education, education is competitive and exclusive. Adding a student will reduce the level of educational services received by the original students. For example, the average attention of teachers will be reduced, and the average educational resources such as venues, books and instruments in schools will be reduced. Technically speaking, schools are fully capable of excluding consumers of education (such as non-payers) from schools or classrooms. Therefore, the direct consumption of education has the nature of private products. Judging from the indirect consumption effect of education, education can promote society.

Social economic growth will make social development more harmonious and produce positive externalities, which are non-competitive and non-exclusive. It is precisely because of the characteristics of indirect consumption that education is a quasi-public product with positive external effects.

3. Taking the externality of educational products as the identification standard, there are two views on the identification of the attributes of educational products. 1) Education is a public product, but it can be transformed into a private product.

2) Education as a whole is a quasi-public product, but different levels and types of education have different attributes. 4. Education has the mixed attributes of pure public goods and private goods. If the government implements the compulsory education system and the education is provided to the public by the government in the form of free, then this kind of education is a public product. If education is provided by the market and payment is the condition of receiving education, then this kind of education is a private product. If education is provided by the government or other social voluntary organizations, and the government only pays part of the education expenses of the educated, then this kind of education is a quasi-public product.