IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fec/journl/v7y2012i2p305-337.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Chunbing Xing

    (School of Economics and Business Administration, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

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¨C2002 period than in the 2002¨C2007 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Chunbing Xing, 2012. "Changes in Job Structure and Rising Wage Inequality in Urban China, 1995-2007," Frontiers of Economics in China-Selected Publications from Chinese Universities, Higher Education Press, vol. 7(2), pages 305-337, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:fec:journl:v:7:y:2012:i:2:p:305-337
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://journal.hep.com.cn/fec/EN/10.3868/s060-001-012-0014-7
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. DiNardo, John & Fortin, Nicole M & Lemieux, Thomas, 1996. "Labor Market Institutions and the Distribution of Wages, 1973-1992: A Semiparametric Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(5), pages 1001-1044, September.
    2. Démurger, Sylvie & Gurgand, Marc & Li, Shi & Yue, Ximing, 2009. "Migrants as second-class workers in urban China? A decomposition analysis," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 610-628, December.
    3. Guanghua Wan & Ming Lu & Zhao Chen, 2007. "Globalization And Regional Income Inequality: Empirical Evidence From Within China," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 53(1), pages 35-59, March.
    4. Dong, Xiao-yuan & Bowles, Paul, 2002. "Segmentation and discrimination in China's emerging industrial labor market," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(2-3), pages 170-196.
    5. O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), 1999. "Handbook of Labor Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 3.
    6. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg & Nina Pavcnik, 2007. "Distributional Effects of Globalization in Developing Countries," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(1), pages 39-82, March.
    7. Xing, Chunbing & Li, Shi, 2012. "Residual wage inequality in urban China, 1995–2007," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 205-222.
    8. Zhang, Junsen & Zhao, Yaohui & Park, Albert & Song, Xiaoqing, 2005. "Economic returns to schooling in urban China, 1988 to 2001," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 730-752, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cui, Yuling & Nahm, Daehoon & Tani, Massimiliano, 2013. "Earnings Differentials and Returns to Education in China, 1995-2008," IZA Discussion Papers 7349, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xing, Chunbing & Li, Shi, 2012. "Residual wage inequality in urban China, 1995–2007," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 205-222.
    2. Xuejun Liu & Albert Park & Yaohui Zhao, 2010. "Explaining Rising Returns to Education in Urban China in the 1990s," Trade Working Papers 22720, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    3. Nie, Haifeng & Xing, Chunbing, 2019. "Education expansion, assortative marriage, and income inequality in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 37-51.
    4. Bosch, Mariano & Manacorda, Marco, 2008. "Minimum wages and earnings inequality in urban Mexico. Revisiting the evidence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19561, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Chen, Binkai & Liu, Dan & Lu, Ming, 2018. "City size, migration and urban inequality in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 42-58.
    6. Björn Gustafsson & Haiyuan Wan, 2018. "Wage growth and inequality in urban China: 1988–2013," WIDER Working Paper Series 163, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Démurger, Sylvie & Li, Shi & Yang, Juan, 2012. "Earnings differentials between the public and private sectors in China: Exploring changes for urban local residents in the 2000s," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 138-153.
    8. Appleton, Simon & Song, Lina & Xia, Qingjie, 2014. "Understanding Urban Wage Inequality in China 1988–2008: Evidence from Quantile Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1-13.
    9. Qu, Zhaopeng & Zhao, Zhong, 2017. "Glass ceiling effect in urban China: Wage inequality of rural-urban migrants during 2002–2007," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 118-144.
    10. Björn Gustafsson & Haiyuan Wan, 2018. "Wage growth and inequality in urban China: 1988-2013," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-163, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Cui, Yuling & Nahm, Daehoon & Tani, Massimiliano, 2013. "Earnings Differentials and Returns to Education in China, 1995-2008," IZA Discussion Papers 7349, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. John Whalley & Chunbing Xing, 2010. "The Regional Distribution of Skill Premia in Urban China," NBER Working Papers 16575, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Michel Lubrano & Abdoul Aziz Junior Ndoye, 2014. "Bayesian Unconditional Quantile Regression: An Analysis of Recent Expansions in Wage Structure and Earnings Inequality in the US 1992–2009," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 61(2), pages 129-153, May.
    14. repec:dgr:rugggd:gd-114 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Chen, Yiu Por (Vincent) & Zhang, Yuan, 2018. "A decomposition method on employment and wage discrimination and its application in urban China (2002–2013)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 1-12.
    16. Kamila Fialová & Martina Mysíková, 2009. "The Minimum Wage: Labor Market Consequences in the Czech Republic," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 59(3), pages 255-274, August.
    17. Alan Manning & Joanna Swaffield, 2008. "The gender gap in early-career wage growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(530), pages 983-1024, July.
    18. Kazuhiro Kumo & Alexandra Koval & Irina Korgun & Olga Trofimenko, 2018. "Foreign Trade and Regional Inequality:The Case of the Russian Federation," Economy of region, Centre for Economic Security, Institute of Economics of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, vol. 1(3), pages 884-895.
    19. Zhu, Rong, 2016. "Wage differentials between urban residents and rural migrants in urban China during 2002–2007: A distributional analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 2-14.
    20. Vendryes, Thomas, 2011. "Migration constraints and development: Hukou and capital accumulation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 669-692.
    21. Balat, Jorge & Brambilla, Irene & Porto, Guido, 2009. "Realizing the gains from trade: Export crops, marketing costs, and poverty," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 21-31, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    job structure; wage inequality; urban China; decomposition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fec:journl:v:7:y:2012:i:2:p:305-337. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Frank H. Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.