IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_6637.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Firm Response to Competitive Shocks: Evidence from China's Minimum Wage Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Harald Hau
  • Yi Huang
  • Gewei Wang

Abstract

The large regional variation in minimum wage levels in the period 2002-08 in China implies that Chinese manufacturing firms experienced competitive shocks as a function of firm location and their low-wage employment share. We find that minimum wage hikes accelerate the input substitution from labor to capital, reduce employment growth and accelerate total factor productivity growth–particularly among the less productive firms under private Chinese or foreign ownership, but not among state-owned enterprises. The heterogeneous firm response to labor cost shocks can be explained by differences in management practices, and suggests that management quality and competitive pressure are complementary.

Suggested Citation

  • Harald Hau & Yi Huang & Gewei Wang, 2017. "Firm Response to Competitive Shocks: Evidence from China's Minimum Wage Policy," CESifo Working Paper Series 6637, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6637
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp6637.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Card, David & Krueger, Alan B, 1994. "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 772-793, September.
    2. Yi Huang & Prakash Loungani & Gewei Wang, 2014. "Minimum wages and firm employment: evidence from China," Globalization Institute Working Papers 173, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    3. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Zheng (Michael) Song, 2015. "Grasp the Large, Let Go of the Small: The Transformation of the State Sector in China," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 50(1 (Spring), pages 295-366.
    4. Hsieh, Chang-Tai & Ossa, Ralph, 2016. "A global view of productivity growth in China," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 209-224.
    5. Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen, 2007. "Measuring and Explaining Management Practices Across Firms and Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 122(4), pages 1351-1408.
    6. Chad Syverson, 2011. "What Determines Productivity?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 326-365, June.
    7. Trevor Tombe & Xiaodong Zhu, 2019. "Trade, Migration, and Productivity: A Quantitative Analysis of China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(5), pages 1843-1872, May.
    8. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Peter J. Klenow, 2014. "The Life Cycle of Plants in India and Mexico," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 129(3), pages 1035-1084.
    9. Jonathan Meer & Jeremy West, 2016. "Effects of the Minimum Wage on Employment Dynamics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 51(2), pages 500-522.
    10. Cheng Chen & Claudia Steinwender, 2019. "Import Competition, Heterogeneous Preferences of Managers, and Productivity," NBER Working Papers 25539, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Lucia Foster & John C. Haltiwanger & C. J. Krizan, 2001. "Aggregate Productivity Growth: Lessons from Microeconomic Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 303-372, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Olley, G Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 1996. "The Dynamics of Productivity in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1263-1297, November.
    13. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Peter J. Klenow, 2009. "Misallocation and Manufacturing TFP in China and India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 124(4), pages 1403-1448.
    14. Loren Brandt & Trevor Tombe & Xiadong Zhu, 2013. "Factor Market Distortions Across Time, Space, and Sectors in China," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(1), pages 39-58, January.
    15. Laurent Frésard & Philip Valta, 2016. "How Does Corporate Investment Respond to Increased Entry Threat?," Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 1-35.
    16. Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen, 2010. "Why Do Management Practices Differ across Firms and Countries?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(1), pages 203-224, Winter.
    17. Loren Brandt & Trevor Tombe & Xiadong Zhu, 2013. "Factor Market Distortions Across Time, Space, and Sectors in China," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(1), pages 39-58, January.
    18. Tony Fang & Carl Lin, 2015. "Minimum wages and employment in China," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-30, December.
    19. Matthias EFING & Rüdiger FAHLENBRACH & Christoph HERPFER & Philipp KRÜGER, 2015. "How Do Investors and Firms React to an Unexpected Currency Appreciation Shock?," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 15-65, Swiss Finance Institute, revised Jan 2016.
    20. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2003. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(2), pages 317-341.
    21. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Zheng (Michael) Song, 2015. "Grasp the Large, Let Go of the Small: The Transformation of the State Sector in China," NBER Working Papers 21006, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Zheng (Michael) Song, 2015. "Grasp the Large, Let Go of the Small: The Transformation of the State Sector in China," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 46(1 (Spring), pages 295-366.
    23. Alla Lileeva & Daniel Trefler, 2010. "Improved Access to Foreign Markets Raises Plant-level Productivity…For Some Plants," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 125(3), pages 1051-1099.
    24. Nicholas Bloom & Aprajit Mahajan & David McKenzie & John Roberts, 2010. "Why Do Firms in Developing Countries Have Low Productivity?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 619-623, May.
    25. Pessoa, João Paulo & Van Reenen, John, 2013. "The UK productivity and jobs puzzle: does the answer lie in labour market flexibility?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58010, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    26. Giroud, Xavier & Mueller, Holger M., 2010. "Does corporate governance matter in competitive industries?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 312-331, March.
    27. Long, Cheryl & Yang, Jin, 2016. "How do firms respond to minimum wage regulation in China? Evidence from Chinese private firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 267-284.
    28. Xavier Giroud & Holger M. Mueller, 2011. "Corporate Governance, Product Market Competition, and Equity Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(2), pages 563-600, April.
    29. Peng Jia, 2014. "Employment and Working Hour Effects of Minimum Wage Increase: Evidence from China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 22(2), pages 61-80, March.
    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. Peter Harasztosi & Attila Lindner, 2019. "Who Pays for the Minimum Wage?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(8), pages 2693-2727, August.
    2. Dosi, Giovanni & Virgillito, Maria Enrica & Yu, Xiaodan, 2020. "The wage-productivity nexus in the world factory economy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    3. Xue Bai & Arpita Chatterjee & Kala Krishna & Hong Ma, 2018. "Trade and Minimum Wages in General Equilibrium: Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 24456, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Fan, Haichao & Lin, Faqin & Tang, Lixin, 2018. "Minimum Wage and Outward FDI from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 1-19.
    5. Clement Imbert & Marlon Seror & Yifan Zhang & Stephan Yanos Zylberberg, 2018. "Migrants and Firms: Evidence from China," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 19/713, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    6. Orley Ashenfelter & Stepan Jurajda Jurajda, 2021. "Wages, Minimum Wages, and Price Pass-Through: The Case of McDonald's Restaurants," Working Papers 646, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    7. Yuci Chen, 2019. "What Do Establishments Do When Wages Increase? Evidence from Minimum Wages in the United States," Working Papers 19-31, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    8. Huang,Zhangkai & Liu,Jinyu & Ma,Guangrong & Xu,L. Colin, 2020. "The Transformative Effects of Privatization in China : A Natural Experiment Based on Politician Career Concern," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9261, The World Bank.
    9. Huang, Yi & Sheng, Liugang & Wang, Gewei, 2021. "How did rising labor costs erode China’s global advantage?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 632-653.
    10. Chu, Angus C. & Furukawa, Yuichi & Kou, Zonglai & Liu, Xueyue, 2019. "Effects of Minimum Wage on Import and Innovation: Theory and Evidence from China," MPRA Paper 97008, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Bin, Peng & Chen, Xiaolan & Fracasso, Andrea & Tomasi, Chiara, 2018. "Resource allocation and productivity across provinces in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 103-113.
    2. Mayneris, Florian & Poncet, Sandra & Zhang, Tao, 2018. "Improving or disappearing: Firm-level adjustments to minimum wages in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 20-42.
    3. Diego Restuccia & Richard Rogerson, 2017. "The Causes and Costs of Misallocation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(3), pages 151-174, Summer.
    4. Marco Bee & Maria Michela Dickson & Flavio Santi, 2018. "Likelihood-based risk estimation for variance-gamma models," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 27(1), pages 69-89, March.
    5. Baccini, Leonardo & Impullitti, Giammario & Malesky, Edmund J., 2019. "Globalization and state capitalism: Assessing Vietnam's accession to the WTO," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 75-92.
    6. Norman Gemmell & Richard Kneller & Danny McGowan & Ismael Sanz & José F. Sanz‐Sanz, 2018. "Corporate Taxation and Productivity Catch‐Up: Evidence from European Firms," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 120(2), pages 372-399, April.
    7. Gabriella Berloffa & Eleonora Matteazzi & Paola Villa, 2017. "The intergenerational transmission of worklessness in Europe.The role of fathers and mothers," DEM Working Papers 2017/04, Department of Economics and Management.
    8. Daniel Berkowitz, 2018. "Market Distortions and Labor Share Distributions: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms," Working Paper 6466, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh.
    9. Gabriella Berloffa & Eleonora Matteazzi & Alina Şandor & Paola Villa, 2019. "The quality of employment in the early labour market experience of young Europeans," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 43(6), pages 1549-1575.
    10. Axel Demenet & Quynh Hoang, 2018. "How important are management practices for the productivity of small and medium enterprises?," WIDER Working Paper Series 69, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Enghin Atalay, 2014. "Materials Prices And Productivity," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 575-611, June.
    12. Alistair Dieppe, 2020. "Global Productivity," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 34015, December.
    13. Dai, Xiaoyong & Cheng, Liwei, 2019. "Aggregate productivity losses from factor misallocation across Chinese manufacturing firms," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 30-41.
    14. Ettore Panetti, 2019. "The Economics of The European Deposit Insurance Scheme," Economic Bulletin and Financial Stability Report Articles and Banco de Portugal Economic Studies, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    15. Chad Syverson, 2011. "What Determines Productivity?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 326-365, June.
    16. Fang, Jing & He, Hui & Li, Nan, 2020. "China's rising IQ (Innovation Quotient) and growth: Firm-level evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    17. Yi Huang & Marco Pagano & Ugo Panizza, 2020. "Local Crowding‐Out in China," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(6), pages 2855-2898, December.
    18. Fan, Haichao & Lin, Faqin & Tang, Lixin, 2018. "Minimum Wage and Outward FDI from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 1-19.
    19. Guo, Jing & Wang, Yanan & Yang, Wei, 2021. "China's anti-corruption shock and resource reallocation in the energy industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    20. Tang, Le, 2021. "Investment dynamics and capital distortion: State and non-state firms in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    firm productivity; capital investment; minimum wage policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • 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
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ces:ceswps:_6637. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.