劳动力流动与工资差异

Labor Flow and Wage Disparity

改革以来,中国的劳动力市场上存在两个突出的现象,一是外来劳动力与本地劳动力存在职业与工资上的差别,二是劳动力流动没有伴随地区间工资差距的缩小。本文对这两个现象做出了统一的解释,其基本逻辑是,劳动力流动促进了工人的重新配对(劳动再分工),进而造成了职业上的差别,并提高了当地工人的工资。其含义是,劳动力流动不仅提高了总体的经济效率,而且可能是一种“帕雷托改进”。经验检验也支持了劳动力流入对工资增长的正效应。

Two phenomena have been prominent in China's labor market since the reform. One phenomenon is the disparities between migrant and local workers in terms of occupation and wages. The other is that the regional wage gap does not seem to narrow with the flow of labor. These two phenomena may be accounted for with the same logic: the flow of labor causes a re-match of laborers(re-division of labor), which in turn gives rise to the disparities in their occupations and raises the wages of local workers. In other words, the flow of labor not only improves the efficiency of the economy in general, but may prove to be a“Pareto improvement.”Empirical testing supports the hypothesized positive effect of higher wages by the inflow of labor.