IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hai/wpaper/201306.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Trade, Foreign Direct Investment and Wage Inequality in China: A Heterogeneous Firms Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Theresa M. Greaney

    (Department of Economics University of Hawaii)

  • Yao Li

    (School of Management and Economics University of Electronic Science and Technology of China)

Abstract

We apply insights from the heterogeneous firms’ literature to an empirical investigation of wage inequality in China, focusing on the potential influences of FDI and trade. Using firm-level data, we examine intra-sectoral wage inequality in a major industrial region with firms identified according to five firm ownership types and three exporter status types. We find large ownership-type wage premiums separate from other observable influences on wages, including a firm’s exporter status. Our results indicate that ownership type matters more than exporter status as a determinant in explaining intra-sectoral wage inequality in China’s Yangtze River Delta. We also find evidence of asymmetric wage effects of firm type by exporter status and by other wage determinants.

Suggested Citation

  • Theresa M. Greaney & Yao Li, 2013. "Trade, Foreign Direct Investment and Wage Inequality in China: A Heterogeneous Firms Approach," Working Papers 201306, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hai:wpaper:201306
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/research/workingpapers/WP_13-6.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2013
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John McMillan & Christopher Woodruff, 1999. "Interfirm Relationships and Informal Credit in Vietnam," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1285-1320.
    2. Helpman, Elhanan & Itskhoki, Oleg & Redding, Stephen J., 2010. "Trade and labor market outcomes," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121937, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Almas Heshmati & Biwei Su, 2017. "Analysis Of Gender Wage Differential In China’S Urban Labor Market," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 62(02), pages 423-445, June.
    4. Ann Harrison & John McLaren & Margaret McMillan, 2011. "Recent Perspectives on Trade and Inequality," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 261-289, September.
    5. Heyman, Fredrik & Sjoholm, Fredrik & Tingvall, Patrik Gustavsson, 2007. "Is there really a foreign ownership wage premium? Evidence from matched employer-employee data," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 355-376, November.
    6. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    7. Elhanan Helpman & Oleg Itskhoki & Marc-Andreas Muendler & Stephen J. Redding, 2017. "Trade and Inequality: From Theory to Estimation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(1), pages 357-405.
    8. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2165-2214 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Chunlai Chen, 2011. "Foreign Direct Investment in China," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14100.
    10. Suqin Ge & Dennis Tao Yang, 2014. "Changes In China'S Wage Structure," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 300-336, April.
    11. Fabrice Defever & Alejandro Riaño, 2012. "China's Pure Exporter Subsidies," CEP Discussion Papers dp1182, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    12. Oi, Walter Y. & Idson, Todd L., 1999. "Firm size and wages," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 33, pages 2165-2214, Elsevier.
    13. Galina Hale & Cheryl Long, 2011. "Did Foreign Direct Investment Put an Upward Pressure on Wages in China?," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 59(3), pages 404-430, August.
    14. Thorsten Schank & Claus Schnabel & Joachim Wagner, 2016. "Do Exporters Really Pay Higher Wages? First Evidence from German Linked Employer–Employee Data," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 5, pages 177-213, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    15. Jr‐Tsung Huang, 2004. "Spillovers from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau Investment and from Other Foreign Investment in Chinese Industries," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 22(1), pages 13-25, January.
    16. Bernard, Andrew B. & Jensen, J. Bradford, 1997. "Exporters, skill upgrading, and the wage gap," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 3-31, February.
    17. Chen, Zhihong & Ge, Ying & Lai, Huiwen, 2011. "Foreign Direct Investment and Wage Inequality: Evidence from China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 1322-1332, August.
    18. repec:oup:restud:v:84:y::i:1:p:357-405. is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Branko Milanovic (ed.), 2012. "Globalization and Inequality," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14151.
    20. Lipsey, Robert E. & Sjoholm, Fredrik, 2004. "Foreign direct investment, education and wages in Indonesian manufacturing," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 415-422, February.
    21. Han, Jun & Liu, Runjuan & Zhang, Junsen, 2012. "Globalization and wage inequality: Evidence from urban China," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 288-297.
    22. Christopher Candelaria & Mary C. Daly & Galina Hale, 2009. "Beyond Kuznets: persistent regional inequality in China," Working Paper Series 2009-07, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    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. Greaney, Theresa M. & Li, Yao & Tu, Dongmei, 2017. "Pollution control and foreign firms’ exit behavior in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 148-159.
    2. Theresa M. Greaney & Yao Li, 2017. "Examining Determinants of Foreign Wage Premiums in China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(10), pages 2056-2077, October.

    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. Theresa M. Greaney & Yao Li, 2017. "Examining Determinants of Foreign Wage Premiums in China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(10), pages 2056-2077, October.
    2. Wenxiao Wang & Christopher Findlay & Shandre Thangavelu, 2021. "Trade, technology, and the labour market: impacts on wage inequality within countries," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 35(1), pages 19-35, May.
    3. Elliott, Robert J.R. & Zhou, Ying, 2015. "Co-location and Spatial Wage Spillovers in China: The Role of Foreign Ownership and Trade," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 629-644.
    4. Nicola Gagliardi & Benoît Mahy & François Rycx, 2020. "Trade, GVCs, and wage inequality: Theoretical and empirical insights," Reflets et perspectives de la vie économique, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(2), pages 115-134.
    5. Baumgarten, Daniel, 2013. "Exporters and the rise in wage inequality: Evidence from German linked employer–employee data," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 201-217.
    6. Davidson, Carl & Heyman, Fredrik & Matusz, Steven & Sjöholm, Fredrik & Zhu, Susan Chun, 2017. "Global engagement and the occupational structure of firms," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 273-292.
    7. Ying Ge & Tony Fang & Yeheng Jiang, 2019. "Access to imported intermediates and intra‐firm wage inequality," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(8), pages 2364-2384, August.
    8. Fu, Dahai & Wu, Yanrui, 2013. "Export wage premium in China's manufacturing sector: A firm level analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 182-196.
    9. Sourafel Girma & Holger Görg & Erasmus Kersting, 2019. "Which boats are lifted by a foreign tide? Direct and indirect wage effects of foreign ownership," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(6), pages 923-947, August.
    10. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2020. "Aid for Trade flows and Wage Inequality in the manufacturing sector of recipient-countries," EconStor Preprints 213936, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    11. Araújo, Bruno César & Paz, Lourenço S., 2014. "The effects of exporting on wages: An evaluation using the 1999 Brazilian exchange rate devaluation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 1-16.
    12. Greaney, Theresa M. & Tanaka, Ayumu, 2021. "Foreign Ownership, Exporting and Gender Wage Gaps: Evidence from Japanese Linked Employer-Employee Data," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    13. Marzieh Abolhassani & Seçil Hülya Danakol, 2019. "Wage and competition channels of foreign direct investment and new firm entry," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 935-960, December.
    14. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2012. "The Empirics of Firm Heterogeneity and International Trade," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 283-313, July.
    15. Elhanan Helpman & Oleg Itskhoki & Marc-Andreas Muendler & Stephen J. Redding, 2017. "Trade and Inequality: From Theory to Estimation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(1), pages 357-405.
    16. Kong, Dongmin & Kong, Gaowen & Pang, Lirang & Zhang, Jian, 2018. "Who gets the wage premium from export: Top managers or employees?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 356-370.
    17. Elhanan Helpman & Oleg Itskhoki & Stephen Redding, 2010. "Inequality and Unemployment in a Global Economy," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(4), pages 1239-1283, July.
    18. Melitz, Marc J. & Redding, Stephen J., 2014. "Heterogeneous Firms and Trade," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 1-54, Elsevier.
    19. TANAKA Ayumu, 2015. "Wage Premiums for Exporters and Multinational Enterprises: Evidence from Japanese linked employer-employee data," Discussion papers 15106, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    20. Muendler, Marc-Andreas, 2017. "Trade, technology, and prosperity: An account of evidence from a labor-market perspective," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2017-15, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Exporter; pure exporter; foreign direct investment; wage premium; manufacturing; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • F66 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Labor
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General

    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:hai:wpaper:201306. 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: Web Technician (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deuhius.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.