Post-industrial Economic Restructuring and Wage Inequality in Urban China, 2003-2015: A Sectoral Perspective

Income inequality in urban China has attracted growing attention from China’s urban researchers and policy makers. Whereas many studies have interrogated the pattern and process of the income gap in Chinese cities undergoing the institutional transformation from plan to market, relatively little is known about how such unequal distribution of income is related to China’s ongoing structural transformation toward a post-industrial economy. Drawing on a decomposition methodology based on the Theil index, this study aimed to address this lacuna through an empirical investigation of China’s urban wage inequality from a sectoral perspective. Our empirical study identified the low-wage manufacturing sector and the high-wage producer services sector as the two biggest contributors to urban wage inequality in China. Urban wage inequality within the producer services was found to be caused by the spatial concentration of a disproportionate number of high-paying jobs in a few developed, high-tier city-regions on the eastern coast. Our empirical findings have important implications for the formulation of policies to address the income inequality that plagues China’s continuing urbanization.

The role of intangible capital in wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers in China

Wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers has increased rapidly in China, right along with its major trading partner--the United States. Trade liberalization and technological improvement have been proposed as causes for the inequality, yet trade liberalization and technological improvement have set the stage for another, possibly more important, cause of the inequality： the movement of intangible capital to China. Intangible capital works synergistically with other inputs to make skilled-workers and tangible capital more valuable. Once the accumulated tangible capital reaches a certain level, its lower unit cost will attract the inflow of intangible capital, which will further expand the demand for skilled workers. As a result, wage inequality becomes larger in China. This paper takes the first step in an attempt to understand the role that the movement of intangible capital plays in the increasing wage inequality in China, and sets out several possible policy prescriptions for China to deal with this inequality.

新型基础设施影响劳动工资和工资差距的内在机制

本文从新型基础设施的产品偏向性出发,在一般均衡框架下探讨了新型基础设施影响劳动工资和工资差距的内在机制。研究发现,新型基础设施直接带来的效率提升可以促进各类劳动工资增长,但间接导致的要素重新配置可能产生不同的结果,总效应取决于资本与各类劳动之间的替代性以及技能型中间品与非技能型中间品之间的替代性。结合中国的实际情况,技能型产品偏向型的新型基础设施可能导致工资差距扩大,但可以带来劳动工资的“普惠性”增长。

Women and Myths of Today: An Investigation for the Reasons of Gender Inequalities

The relationship between participation and gender is rather more fraught with tensions and contradictions.These points of tension between participatory and“gender aware”approaches to development arise from-and produce rather different ways of engaging with issues of gendered power.This paper aims to list the dimensions of“participation”and“gender”in development,highlighting paradoxes of“gender-aware”and participatory development interventions.From that part it raises a question,despite the continuous efforts that have been exerted in the past and up to present to minimize the gap of gender inequality,coupled with the fact that the percentage of females to males in the workplace is increasing rapidly;yet the sam problems exist,in particular,the lack of employment opportunities and rights.Thus,raising issues such as is gender awareness necessary and sufficient for effective participation of women in gender and development practices?And what are the requirements for this effective participation?Does the effective participation of women overcome gender differences?

企业数字化转型与内部收入不平等

企业数字化转型在赋能实现高质量发展的同时,是否有助于改善内部收入分配格局?本文利用中国A股上市公司2009-2020年的数据,从微观层面上研究企业数字化转型与内部收入不平等的关系。研究发现:(1)企业数字化转型与高管薪酬间存在显著的倒U型关系,与普通员工薪酬存在显著的线性关系。使得数字化转型对企业内部收入不平等存在显著的倒U型影响,随着数字化转型的深入推进有利于抑制公司内部收入不平等。该结论在通过工具变量检验、Heckman两步法、PSM倾向匹配以及多种稳健性分析后保持高度稳健;(2)异质性分析结果显示,在民营企业和技术密集型企业中,数字化转型与企业内部收入不平等的倒U型关系更为显著;(3)职工监事对数字化转型与内部收入不平等的倒U型关系具有显著的调节作用。本文研究结论为正确处理数字化转型的技术效率和分配效应提供了新的思路,为促进社会公平和实现共同富裕提供了新的启发。

自动化是否扩大了企业内部收入差距——来自制造业非国有上市公司的证据

自动化技术的广泛应用在提高生产效率的同时改变着收入分配。本文从企业内部收入分配的视角,借助2012—2019年中国制造业上市公司和国际机器人联合会发布的工业机器人数据,识别出自动化程度对非国有企业内部收入差距的扩大作用,并检验了可能的影响机制:以机器人渗透度衡量的自动化程度每提高1%,高级管理人员与普通员工之间的收入差距平均扩大0.17%。自动化程度通过降低管理成本和改善经营绩效两个方面提升可供管理层分享的租金,进而提升高管薪酬,扩大企业内部收入差距。异质性分析表明,对于高管持股份额越高、普通员工议价能力越强或所在行业资本密集度越低的企业,自动化程度增加对企业内部收入差距的提升幅度越小。

数字技术创新、租金分享与企业内部收入不平等

本文利用理论模型推演探讨了企业数字技术创新对其内部高管与普通员工收入不平等的影响及其作用机制,并基于2012—2020年A股上市公司面板数据,采用Bartik工具变量对理论假说进行了实证检验。研究发现,数字技术创新显著扩大了企业内部收入不平等。机制分析表明,数字技术创新带来的技术租金分享是企业内部收入不平等加剧的重要诱因,尤其相较于普通员工,技术租金以薪酬的形式直接流向了高管。异质性分析显示,数字技术创新对高技术密度行业的企业内部收入不平等的影响更为显著,而通过政策干预增强普通员工薪资谈判能力可以有效减轻数字技术创新对企业内部收入不平等的影响。

高铁开通与城市内部制造业工资不平等:事实、机制与政策含义

降低收入不平等水平对于扩大内需以及构建“双循环”发展格局有重要意义。我国收入不平等不仅体现在城乡之间的差距,还体现在城市内部的收入差距,后者是一个容易被忽视的问题。基于中国企业微观数据,将高铁开通视为准自然实验,采用多期双重差分法和工具变量等方法,考察中国高铁开通对城市内部制造业企业工资不平等的影响。研究发现,高铁开通会显著提升城市内制造业企业工资不平等水平,其对工资不平等的影响主要表现在行业间,知识溢出效应和贸易成本降低效应是影响收入分布结构变化的重要机制。异质性的进一步分析表明,高铁开通对工资不平等的影响在中部地区和东部地区城市显著为正,西部地区并不显著,且呈现随城市等级升高而增长的特征。

Urban wage inequality:The reform of state-owned enterprises in China’s great transition

Along with the further reforms of state-owned enterprises(SOEs),urban China has experienced an evident increase in wage inequality.Using provincial-level data for the period 1993–2013 and individual-level data from five waves of the China Household Income Project from 1988 to 2013,this paper investigates how the SOE reform affects wage distribution in urban China by considering three mechanisms:wage determination,ownership structure and institutional segmentation.The results of this study show that overall inequality increased with the reduction of SOEs’share in the economy.Moreover,through a detailed Oaxaca–Blinder re-centred influence function decomposition,this experiment obtains consistent and robust results.Based on the theory of soft budget constraint,this study demonstrates that the increase in urban wage inequality has been mainly caused by wage structure effects.Since the SOE reform in the 1980s,the wage determination mechanism has changed with the increase in the return of the labour force to education.During this period,institutional segmentation was of less significance in explaining the wage gap between SOEs and non-SOEs.Furthermore,the accelerating ageing process of China’s population had no significant effects on the trajectory of urban wage inequality throughout this period.

Trade Liberalization and Wage Inequality： Evidence from the U.S. States

This paper examines the relationship between trade liberalization and wage inequality for 50 U.S. states during the period from 1999 to 2008. The Difference-in-Differences and fixed effects methods are employed to evaluate the effect of trade liberalization on wage inequality in the U.S. states. Empirical results reveal that trade liberalization and de-unionization do increase the wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers. Evidence shows skill-biased technological change has no significant impact on rising wage inequality. As Difference-in-Differences estimation on time-series cross sectional data involves many years, the conventional standard errors often understate the standard deviation of the estimators. This paper employs the standard bootstrapping procedure and the clustering error procedure to correct the problem, and all sign patterns still hold.

Changes in Job Structure and Rising Wage Inequality in Urban China, 1995-2007

Abstract We use household surveys from 1995, 2002, and 2007 to examine how changes in job structure contributed to China＇s rising urban wage inequality, considering three job characteristics： occupation, industry, and firm ownership. The explanatory power of job structure for wage inequality increased between 1995 and 2007. Both the change in relative number of jobs （composition effect） and the change in between-job and within-job wage gaps （price effect） contributed to rising wage inequality. Price effect was the major contributor, whereas composition effect played a larger role in the 1995-2002 period than in the 2002-2007 period, and at the lower-half distribution. Between-job inequality played a major role in the first period, and within-job inequality played a major role in the second period. Our results suggest that both technological change and institutional features influence job structure and wage inequality.

International financial crisis and wage inequality in urban China

The shock of the 2007/2008 international financial crisis had a negative impact on the Chinese economy at its early stage,but the immediate reaction of the Chinese government with a stimulus package of 4 trillion yuan has recovered this economy soon.Since the crisis and the governmental stimulus package have generated different impacts on unemployment and wage growth across regions and industries,it will lead to some changes in the pattern of wage inequality.This paper uses urban household data collected from RUMiC surveys during 2008–2010 to investigate changes in wage growth and inequality in urban China in this period.The findings indicate that the international financial crisis did not have significantly negative impact on wage growth and contributed to narrowing wage inequality in urban China,which was largely due to offsetting effects of the governmental stimulus policies.However,as the impact of the stimulus policies faded and the impact of the international financial crisis worsened,the wage growth experienced a downward trend and wage inequality rose in 2010.

网络空间性别不平等的再生产:互联网工资溢价效应的性别差异 以第三期妇女地位调查为例

本文通过倾向值匹配的方法发现:在控制了其他因素之后,互联网使用者的平均工资收入是非使用者的1.38倍;同时,互联网溢价效应存在着显著的性别差异,女性的互联网工资溢价为男性互联网工资溢价的90.6%。此外,本文发现,互联网工资溢价效应与人们的网络行为密切相关。男性相比女性,具有更强烈的使用互联网资源进行再学习和人力资本再积累的偏好;在女性互联网使用者之间,性别观念更平等的女性具有更强烈的使用互联网资源进行再学习和人力资本再积累的偏好。在传统的网络空间性别不平等的研究框架下,本文着重于探析性别文化观念如何影响人们对互联网的使用偏好和使用方式,从而成为导致网络空间性别不平等的再生产的重要原因和机制。

外商直接投资与服务业工资差距--基于中国城镇个人与行业匹配数据的实证分析

本文将服务业细分行业的外资数据匹配至中国城乡移民调查数据中的城镇个人,利用OLS和工具变量实证分析了外资进入对服务业工资的影响。研究发现,外资显著提高了技能劳动力的工资,对非技能劳动力的影响不显著;外资对服务业女性工资的提升作用大于男性;外资显著提升了资本密集型服务业工资,对技术密集型和劳动密集型服务业影响不显著。据此,提出通过进一步扩大服务业开放来促进劳动力技能提升和改善收入分配状况的政策建议。

垄断对我国行业收入差距的影响到底有多大?

改革30年来我国行业收入差距从整体上看呈现出先缩小后持续增大的变动趋势;经济体制改革不彻底导致的垄断与部分垄断是形成行业收入差距的主要因素,其贡献率合计占行业差距的65%左右;垄断对行业收入差距的贡献虽然有所波动,但基本上保持不变;部分垄断对行业收入差距的影响在逐步缩小。

外包、创新与工资不平等

本文构建了一个纳入发达国家创新活动的外包模型,来研究发达国家对发展中国家的外包转移,对发达国家和发展中国家之间的工资不平等以及作为发包方的发达国家企业创新活动的影响。我们发现,外包转移活动中不同因素对发达国家和发展中国家之间的工资不平等有着较为复杂的影响效应;更为重要是,发达国家对发展中国家的外包转移程度越大,越能激励作为发包方的发达国家企业的创新活动。进一步,考虑到作为外包转移接受方的发展中国家之间普遍存在的模仿行为特征,在外包模型中引入了发展中国家企业之间的模仿系数。模型结果表明,发展中国家代工企业之间的模仿程度越大,则会缩小发达国家和发展中国家之间的工资不平等;而且,作为代工方的发展中国家企业之间的模仿程度越大,越能激励作为发包方的发达国家企业的创新活动,越能激励发达国家对发展中国家的外包转移。本文的结论对于重新思考与理解外包活动对作为发包方的发达国家和作为接包方的发展中国家所具有的复杂影响效应,无疑具有非常直接的现实政策含义。

工会存在“工资溢价”吗?——来自中国的经验证据

利用2008年CGSS大样本微观数据,评估中国工会是否能为员工带来"工资溢价"。实证结果表明,平均而言,工会工人相比于非工会工人具有显著更高的工资水平和更低的工资不平等。由工会工资政策引致的技能价格效应是工资差异的主要肇因,特别对处于收入分布低端的广大劳动者,工会作用更大。这些结果意味着,健全工会制度、保障并提高低收入者的工资报酬,对于改善我国劳动力市场收入分配具有重要意义。

经济开放、技术进步与我国制造业的工资差距

首先构建理论模型,说明外贸外资与技术进步对高低技能两类工人之间的工资差距的影响,然后采用我国2004年和2008年两次经济普查的一百多个制造业中类行业数据,进行了实证检验。结果发现,进口有缩小我国制造业工资差距的作用;低技术行业的出口缩小了工资差距,而新产品出口则会扩大工资差距;外资企业来源地区不同,对工资差距的影响也不同。非港澳台地区的外资企业扩大了我国制造业的工资差距,但是港澳台资企业不会扩大工资差距。此外,我国制造业的技术进步偏向高技能劳动,扩大了工资差距。

外资进入与国内工资差异:基于工业行业面板数据的联立估计

本文通过内生化熟练劳动力的相对工资与相对供给,建立两方程联立估计模型,利用1999-2006年我国36个工业行业数据实证考察了外资对我国工资不平等的影响。以科技人员相对工资作为熟练劳动力的代理指标。研究结果表明,外资进入一方面会通过技术外溢渠道促进我国内资企业偏向熟练劳动力的技术进步,从而扩大我国的工资不平等;另一方面其较高的劳动报酬会吸引更多的熟练劳动力流向外资企业,从而减少我国内资企业熟练劳动力的相对供给,进而进一步扩大我国的工资不平等。文章最后对估计结果的稳健性进行了较为细致的检验,检验结果表明本文的主要估计结果是稳健的。

互联网使用与工资收入差距——基于CHNS数据的经验分析

基于2004—2011年的中国营养与健康调查数据(CHNS),本文使用最小二乘法和控制自选择偏差的倾向性得分匹配法详细估计了互联网使用对工资收入的影响。结果表明,互联网使用对个体工资收入有积极的影响,尤其对于拥有高中学历的个体而言,这种影响更大。本文进一步使用基于RIF回归的FFL分解方法考察了互联网使用对工资不平等的影响。本文发现,2004—2011年间互联网使用比例的增加降低了整体工资不平等,且使用过互联网的高中学历人员比例增加有助于降低高工资与中等工资收入人群的工资差距。同时,互联网使用收益率的下降也有助于降低工资不平等,尤其有助于降低高工资与中等工资收入人群之间的工资差距。因此,普及互联网使用,尤其是提高低收入群体的互联网使用比例和普及该群体的高中阶段教育对于抑制不平等的扩大有重要的意义。