IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v76y2025ics1544612325001977.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Manual task intensity and male-female wage gap: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Xie, Da
  • Zhang, Min
  • Bing, Pijing

Abstract

The male-female wage gap is a key factor that influences household investment decisions. This study investigates the impact of manual task intensity (MTI) on the male-female wage gap in China. Males generally do not hold as strong a comparative advantage in cognitive tasks as they do in manual tasks. Therefore, the decrease in MTI is expected to reduce the male-female wage gap. This study finds that MTI accounts for 55.7 % of the male income premium. The findings suggest that a decline in MTI would contribute to a re-balancing of the male-female wage gap in China.

Suggested Citation

  • Xie, Da & Zhang, Min & Bing, Pijing, 2025. "Manual task intensity and male-female wage gap: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:76:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325001977
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.106933
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325001977
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.106933?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Beaudry & David A. Green & Benjamin M. Sand, 2016. "The Great Reversal in the Demand for Skill and Cognitive Tasks," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(S1), pages 199-247.
    2. Marigee P. Bacolod & Bernardo S. Blum, 2010. "Two Sides of the Same Coin: U.S. "Residual" Inequality and the Gender Gap," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(1).
    3. Sandra E. Black & Alexandra Spitz-Oener, 2010. "Explaining Women's Success: Technological Change and the Skill Content of Women's Work," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(1), pages 187-194, February.
    4. Pengpeng Yue & Aslihan Gizem Korkmaz & Haigang Zhou, 2020. "Household Financial Decision Making Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 2363-2377, August.
    5. David H. Autor & Michael J. Handel, 2013. "Putting Tasks to the Test: Human Capital, Job Tasks, and Wages," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(S1), pages 59-96.
    6. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    7. Pengpeng Yue & Aslihan Gizem Korkmaz & Zhichao Yin & Haigang Zhou, 2021. "Household-owned Businesses’ Vulnerability to the COVID-19 Pandemic," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(6), pages 1662-1674, May.
    8. Ilse Lindenlaub & Fabien Postel-Vinay, 2023. "Multidimensional Sorting under Random Search," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(12), pages 3497-3539.
    9. Xu, Dandan & Guo, Dongli & Yue, Pengpeng & Li, Mengshi, 2024. "Household green consumption: Does digital inclusion matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    10. Charness, Gary & Gneezy, Uri, 2012. "Strong Evidence for Gender Differences in Risk Taking," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 50-58.
    11. Dai, Xinchen & Li, Jing, 2021. "Inequality of opportunity in China: Evidence from pseudo panel data," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    12. Ge, Peng & Sun, Wenkai & Zhao, Zhong, 2021. "Employment structure in China from 1990 to 2015," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 168-190.
    13. Lundberg, Shelly & Pollak, Robert A, 1993. "Separate Spheres Bargaining and the Marriage Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(6), pages 988-1010, December.
    14. Shintaro Yamaguchi, 2018. "Changes in Returns to Task-Specific Skills and Gender Wage Gap," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 53(1), pages 32-70.
    15. Daron Acemoglu & Fredric Kong & Pascual Restrepo, 2024. "Tasks At Work: Comparative Advantage, Technology and Labor Demand," NBER Working Papers 32872, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Deng, Xin & Yu, Mingzhe, 2021. "Does the marginal child increase household debt? – Evidence from the new fertility policy in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    17. Pengpeng Yue & Aslihan Gizem Korkmaz & Haigang Zhou, 2020. "Household Financial Decision Making Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(10), pages 2363-2377, August.
    18. Ye, Xiang & Yue, Pengpeng, 2023. "Financial literacy and household energy efficiency: An analysis of credit market and supply chain," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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, Pengcheng & Yang, Xuelin, 2024. "Social trust and household financial decision-making: An empirical study based on the usage of household financial technology," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. David J. Deming, 2017. "The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(4), pages 1593-1640.
    3. Jiao, Lei & Lu, Sijin & Chen, Changchun & Feng, Yu, 2024. "Social security, relative deprivation, digital capacity, and household financial investment behavior," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    4. Elizabeth J. Casabianca & Alessia Lo Turco & Claudia Pigini, 2020. "Equal Pay for Equal Task: Assessing Heterogeneous Returns to Tasks across Genders," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 197-239, April.
    5. Qu, Bowen, 2025. "Pension levels, social activities, and household consumption," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    6. Li, Qianqian & Zhao, Zhengtang & Chen, Tingting, 2024. "The effect of public pension insurance integration on income disparities between urban-rural households: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    7. Marialuisa Divella & Alessia Lo Turco & Alessandro Sterlacchini, 2023. "Local labour tasks and patenting in US commuting zones," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(5), pages 1097-1119.
    8. 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.
    9. Yang, Liuhui & Li, Ruoyi, 2025. "Government governance, family financial support, and financial well-being of the elderly: Evidence from CHARLS Data," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    10. Kaya, Ezgi, 2014. "Gender Wage Gap Trends in Europe: The Role of Occupational Allocation and Skill Prices," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2014/23, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    11. Ian Nicole A. Generalao, 2019. "Mapping tasks to occupations using Philippine data," UP School of Economics Discussion Papers 201904, University of the Philippines School of Economics.
    12. He, Wei & Ling, Wenhao & Chen, Ziyi, 2025. "Financial literacy, old-age dependency ratio and household fraud risk," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    13. Andy Dickerson & Damon Morris, 2019. "The Changing Demand for Skills in the UK," CVER Research Papers 020, Centre for Vocational Education Research.
    14. Capatina, Elena, 2014. "Skills and the evolution of wage inequality," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 41-57.
    15. Zhao, Dongfang & Gao, Genghe & Liu, Tao & Zhao, Zhenkun, 2024. "Population aging, digital divide, and household financial asset choices—An empirical study based on prefecture-level population census data," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    16. Wang, Zhen & Huang, Yaoxuan & Chen, Min & Li, Changle, 2025. "Elderly care burden and household investment behavior: The roles of family income, social security, and long-term care insurance," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    17. Etheridge, Ben & Cavaglia, Chiara, 2017. "Job polarization, task prices and the distribution of task returns," ISER Working Paper Series 2017-09, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    18. Liu, Pingfen & Cai, Peifeng & Wang, Jing, 2025. "The dual driving mechanism of financial literacy and risky financial assets on household entrepreneurial decision-making," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    19. Wang, Xinjian & Ding, Yihao & Dong, Qiang & Sun, Shuai & Chen, Zhixiao, 2025. "Impact of digital divide on household consumption: Role of mental health and happiness," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    20. Speer, Jamin D., 2016. "How bad is occupational coding error? A task-based approach," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 166-168.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Male-female wage gap; Biased technological change; Manual task intensity; Cognitive task intensity; Household finance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    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:eee:finlet:v:76:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325001977. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    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.