IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/etrans/v18y2010i3p513-538.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wages, participation and unemployment in the economic transition of urban China1

Author

Listed:
  • Jun Han
  • Junsen Zhang

Abstract

Wages, participation and unemployment are major topics for researchers of the labour market. How have these measures evolved in the economic transition of urban China? Have they evolved in accordance with those in the Statistical Yearbook of China (produced by the National Bureau of Statistics, China) and previous studies? We find that the estimated wage level based on Urban Household Survey (UHS) data was higher than that in the Statistical Yearbook in earlier years, but the relationship has reversed since 1999. Our estimated participation rate is lower than that of Giles et al. (2006) but higher than Dong et al. (2007) and Maurer‐Fazio et al. (2007). The analysis shows that the unemployment rate is lower than that estimated with the China Urban Labor Survey data in Giles et al. (2005). Our estimation results on unemployment rates turn out to be more similar to those in Dong et al. (2007) but are different from those in Hu and Sheng (2007). This analysis provides the first systematic comparison of the wage level from different sources, and supplements the existing estimates on participation and unemployment using a more representative dataset for urban China.

Suggested Citation

  • Jun Han & Junsen Zhang, 2010. "Wages, participation and unemployment in the economic transition of urban China1," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 18(3), pages 513-538, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:etrans:v:18:y:2010:i:3:p:513-538
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0351.2009.00380.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0351.2009.00380.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0351.2009.00380.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brainerd, Elizabeth, 1998. "Winners and Losers in Russia's Economic Transition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(5), pages 1094-1116, December.
    2. Junsen Zhang & Jun Han & Pak-Wai Liu & Yaohui Zhao, 2008. "Trends in the Gender Earnings Differential in Urban China, 1988–2004," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 61(2), pages 224-243, January.
    3. 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.
    4. Swati Basu & Saul Estrin & Jan Svejnar, 2005. "Employment Determination in Enterprises under Communism and in Transition: Evidence from Central Europe," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 58(3), pages 353-369, April.
    5. Margaret Maurer-Fazio & James Hughes & Dandan Zhang, 2007. "An Ocean formed from one hundred rivers: the effects of ethnicity, gender, marriage, and location on labor force participation in urban China," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3-4), pages 159-187.
    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. Zhen Zeng & Yu Xie, 2014. "The Effects of Grandparents on Children’s Schooling: Evidence From Rural China," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(2), pages 599-617, April.

    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. Wang, Le, 2012. "Economic transition and college premium in urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 238-252.
    2. Shuaizhang Feng & Yingyao Hu & Robert Moffitt, 2015. "Long Run Trends in Unemployment and Labor Force Participation in China," NBER Working Papers 21460, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Margaret Maurer-Fazio & Rachel Connelly & Lan Chen & Lixin Tang, 2011. "Childcare, Eldercare, and Labor Force Participation of Married Women in Urban China, 1982–2000," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 46(2), pages 261-294.
    4. Shuang Chen, 2022. "The Positive Effect of Women’s Education on Fertility in Low-Fertility China," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(1), pages 125-161, March.
    5. Yang, Dennis Tao, 2005. "Determinants of schooling returns during transition: Evidence from Chinese cities," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 244-264, June.
    6. Gustafsson, Björn & Wan, Haiyuan, 2020. "Wage growth and inequality in urban China: 1988–2013," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    7. Yuanyuan Chen & Shuaizhang Feng, 2011. "Parental education and wages: Evidence from China," Frontiers of Economics in China, Springer;Higher Education Press, vol. 6(4), pages 568-591, December.
    8. Lin Xiu & Morley Gunderson, 2013. "Credential Effects and the Returns to Education in China," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 27(2), pages 225-248, June.
    9. Li, Tao & Zhang, Juyan, 2010. "What determines employment opportunity for college graduates in China after higher education reform?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 38-50, March.
    10. Feng, Shuaizhang & Hu, Yingyao & Moffitt, Robert, 2017. "Long run trends in unemployment and labor force participation in urban China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 304-324.
    11. Margaret Maurer‐Fazio & James W. Hughes & Dandan Zhang, 2010. "A comparison and decomposition of reform‐era labor force participation rates of China's ethnic minorities and Han majority," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 31(2), pages 138-162, May.
    12. LEE, Jong-Wha & Wie, Dainn, 2017. "Wage Structure and Gender Earnings Differentials in China and India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 313-329.
    13. Chen, Zhihong & Ge, Ying & Lai, Huiwen & Wan, Chi, 2013. "Globalization and Gender Wage Inequality in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 256-266.
    14. Wenshu Gao & Russell Smyth, 2012. "Returns to Schooling in Urban China, 2001-2010: Evidence from Three Waves of the China Urban Labor Survey," Monash Economics Working Papers 50-12, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    15. Wang, Xiaojun & Fleisher, Belton M. & Li, Haizheng & Li, Shi, 2007. "Access to Higher Education and Inequality: The Chinese Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 2823, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Wang, Xiaojun & Fleisher, Belton M. & Li, Haizheng & Li, Shi, 2014. "Access to college and heterogeneous returns to education in China," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 78-92.
    17. Anita V. Staneva & Hany Abdel-Latif, 2016. "From Soviet to Europe: Returns to Education Puzzle in Bulgaria," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 30(3), pages 347-367, September.
    18. Tinh T. Doan & John Gibson, 2009. "Do Returns to Schooling Go Up During Transition? The Not So Contrary Case of Vietnam," Working Papers in Economics 09/08, University of Waikato.
    19. 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).
    20. Han, Jun & Li, Shi, 2017. "Internal migration and external benefit: The impact of labor migration on the wage structure in urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 67-86.

    More about this item

    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:bla:etrans:v:18:y:2010:i:3:p:513-538. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ebrdduk.html .

    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.