IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-19-01075.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What caused the wage convergence between urban natives and migrants in China?

Author

Listed:
  • Mengdan Li

    (Faculty of Economics and Business, Hokkaido University)

Abstract

In the Chinese labor market, the wage gap between urban natives and rural-urban migrants has narrowed 17% from 2002 to 2013. This research focuses on wage convergence and seeks to underpin the reasons. I utilize the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) survey dataset and employ Juhn, Murphy, and Pierce (1991) decomposition method to undertake the analysis. I find three main factors that caused the closing wage gap: reduced discrimination (74.45%), favorable wage structure (31.24%), and improvement in job characteristics of migrants (24.56%). But the differentials in schooling quality widen the wage gap by 45.00%. This study further explores the wage gap trends in different skill groups and finds that low-skilled migrants benefit more than high-skilled from the labor market.

Suggested Citation

  • Mengdan Li, 2020. "What caused the wage convergence between urban natives and migrants in China?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(3), pages 2275-2288.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-19-01075
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2020/Volume40/EB-20-V40-I3-P198.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Myeong‐Su Yun, 2009. "Wage Differentials, Discrimination And Inequality: A Cautionary Note On The Juhn, Murphy And Pierce Decomposition Method," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 56(1), pages 114-122, February.
    2. repec:bla:pacecr:v:9:y:2004:i:3:p:173-189 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Ma, Xinxin, 2018. "Labor market segmentation by industry sectors and wage gaps between migrants and local urban residents in urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 96-115.
    4. Blau, Francine D & Kahn, Lawrence M, 1997. "Swimming Upstream: Trends in the Gender Wage Differential in 1980s," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 1-42, January.
    5. Margaret Maurer-Fazio & Ngan Dinh, 2002. "Differential Rewards to, and Contributions of, Education in Urban China???s Segmented Labor Markets," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 508, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    6. Nabanita Datta Gupta & Ronald L. Oaxaca & Nina Smith, 2006. "Swimming Upstream, Floating Downstream: Comparing Women's Relative Wage Progress in the United States and Denmark," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 59(2), pages 243-266, January.
    7. Meng, Xin & Zhang, Junsen, 2001. "The Two-Tier Labor Market in Urban China: Occupational Segregation and Wage Differentials between Urban Residents and Rural Migrants in Shanghai," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 485-504, September.
    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. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming, 2021. "Mama loves you: The gender wage gap and expenditure on children's education in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1015-1034.

    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. Eva Fransen & Janneke Plantenga & Jan Dirk Vlasblom, 2011. "Why do women still earn less than men? Decomposing the Dutch gender pay gap, 1996-2006," Post-Print hal-00719069, HAL.
    2. Heywood, John S. & Siebert, W. Stanley & Wei, Xiangdong, 2009. "Job Satisfaction and the Labor Market Institutions in Urban China," IZA Discussion Papers 4254, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Gagnon, Jason & Xenogiani, Theodora & Xing, Chunbing, 2009. "Are all migrants really worse off in urban labour markets: new empirical evidence from China," MPRA Paper 16109, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Astrid Kunze, 2008. "Gender wage gap studies: consistency and decomposition," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 63-76, August.
    5. Xinxin Ma & Ichiro Iwasaki, 2021. "Does communist party membership bring a wage premium in China? a meta-analysis," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 55-94, January.
    6. Xinxin Ma & Ichiro Iwasaki, 2021. "Return to schooling in China: a large meta-analysis," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 379-410, July.
    7. Yi CHEN & Sylvie DEMURGER & Martin FOURNIER, 2004. "Différentiels salariaux, segmentation et discrimination à l’égard des femmes sur le marché du travail chinois," Working Papers 200426, CERDI.
    8. Sonja C. Kassenboehmer & Mathias G. Sinning, 2014. "Distributional Changes in the Gender Wage Gap," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(2), pages 335-361, April.
    9. Ma, Xinxin & Zhang, Jingwen, 2018. "The Timing of Childbearing and Female Labor Supply in China," CEI Working Paper Series 2018-9, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    10. Bonaccolto-Töpfer, Marina & Castagnetti, Carolina & Rosti, Luisa, 2023. "Changes in the gender pay gap over time: the case of West Germany," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 57, pages 1-11.
    11. 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.
    12. Hipólito Simón, 2012. "The gender gap in earnings: an international comparison with European matched employer--employee data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(15), pages 1985-1999, May.
    13. Sonja C. Kassenböhmer & Mathias Sinning, 2010. "Distributional Changes in the Gender Wage Gap," Ruhr Economic Papers 0220, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    14. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2006. "The U.S. Gender Pay Gap in the 1990S: Slowing Convergence," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 60(1), pages 45-66, October.
    15. Tromp, Nikolas, 2019. "The narrowing gender wage gap in South Korea," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1-1.
    16. Maurer-Fazio, Margaret & Connelly, Rachel & Thi Tran, Ngoc-Han, 2015. "Do Negative Native-Place Stereotypes Lead to Discriminatory Wage Penalties in China's Migrant Labor Markets?," IZA Discussion Papers 8842, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Ezgi Kaya, 2023. "Gender wage gap trends in Europe: The role of occupational skill prices," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 162(3), pages 385-405, September.
    18. Ahmed Elsayed & Andries Grip & Didier Fouarge, 2017. "Computer Use, Job Tasks and the Part-Time Pay Penalty," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 55(1), pages 58-82, March.
    19. M Niaz Asadullah & Saizi Xiao, 2019. "Labor Market Returns to Education and English Language Skills in the People's Republic of China: An Update," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 36(1), pages 80-111, March.
    20. Thomas Vendryes & Jiaqi Zhan, 2023. "Hukou-Based Discrimination, Dialects and City Characteristics," Documents de recherche 23-04, Centre d'Études des Politiques Économiques (EPEE), Université d'Evry Val d'Essonne.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-19-01075. 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: John P. Conley (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.