Trade liberalization and the inter-industry wage premia: the missingf role of productivity

The literature concerning the effect of tariffs on the inter-industry wage premium has not addressed the role of total factor productivity (TFP) in determining both the wage premium and tariffs. This omission not only overlooks an important determinant of wage premium but also invalidates the use of the pre-reform tariff level as an instrument for the change in tariffs. Based on an analysis of Colombian data, I find that including TFP in the estimated model of the effects of tariffs on the wage premium leads to a 41% decrease in the effect of tariffs on the inter-industry wage premium relative to the model that omits TFP. More specifically, a 10 percentage point decrease in tariffs reduces the wage premium by 1.01%, whereas a 10% increase in TFP raise wage premium by 1.6%. This finding suggests the importance of using policies that boost productivity to offset the effect of tariffs on the wage premium.     

父母的政治资本如何影响大学生在劳动力市场中的表现?-基于中国高校应届毕业生就业调查的经验研究

利用作者收集的中国大学毕业生就业调查数据,我们分析了"官二代"学生与非"官二代"学生在劳动力市场上第一份工作的工资差异。研究发现"官二代"学生的起薪比非"官二代"学生的起薪平均高13%(约280元/月)。这一差异不能被学生家庭的收入、父母的教育程度、学生的高考成绩、就读大学的质量以及学生在大学期间积累的人力资本所解释。因此我们认为父母的政治资本本身有助于提高大学生在劳动力市场中的表现。     

企业异质性、出口对工资溢价的影响——基于中国工业企业微观数据的经验证据

本文以企业异质性理论为基础，揭示了企业异质性、出口对工资溢价的影响机理。基于中国工业企业微观数据，对企业异质性、出口对工资溢价的影响进行了实证检验。研究结果表明：(1)企业异质性对工资溢价有显著的影响。其中企业创新能力、企业生产率、资本密集度与技术密集度、企业绩效对工资溢价有显著的正向影响，企业创新能力越强、生产率水平越高、绩效越好，其工资溢价越明显。(2)出口、出口补贴能够带来显著的工资溢价，工资溢价与出口密集度、出口补贴强度呈倒U型关系。(3)人力资本(员工受教育水平、职称、技能)对工资溢价有显著的正向影响。人力资本水平越高，其工资溢价越明显。此外，大型企业、中央直属企业、外资企业、沿海企业均存在明显的工资溢价。这一研究结果有着重要的政策启示。     

The evolving nature of the college wage premium

Focusing on the signaling aspect of education, we show that the college wage premium can be U-shaped in the share of the population with a college degree. This prediction is consistent with empirical evidence from a range of countries. Moreover, the equilibrium in our model is unique, which means that we are able to generate empirically-testable predictions linking income inequality and the premium enjoyed by the college educated. Consequently, our model provides a framework for future empirical studies.     

Does having a cadre parent pay? Evidence from the first job offers of Chinese college graduates

We estimate the wage premium associated with having a cadre parent in China using a recent survey of college graduates carried out by the authors. The wage premium of having a cadre parent is 15%, and this premium cannot be explained by other observables such as college entrance exam scores, quality of colleges and majors, a full set of college human capital attributes, and job characteristics. These results suggest that the remaining premium could be the true wage premium of having a cadre parent.     

Economic Growth and Wage Stagnation in Peru: 1998–2012

From 1998 to 2012, the Peruvian economy exhibited rapid growth. Moreover, the composition of the labor force improved in terms of education and experience, two variables that are typically associated to higher human capital. The average worker in 2012 had a higher level of education and was one and a half years older than in 1998, reflecting the impact of the demographic transition. However, the average real wage was roughly constant. We show that a decline in the wage premium for education, and to a minor extent for experience, is responsible for the lack of growth in the average real wage. Had these two premia remained constant throughout the period of analysis, average labor earnings would have increased by about 2.6% per year, of which 0.7 percentage points are accounted for by the changes in the composition of the labor force in terms of age and education. We explore the role of the relative supply of workers with different levels of human capital as an explanation for the decline in the wage premium for education. Finally, we analyze the implications of these findings for some macroeconomic variables, as earnings and wage inequality, the labor share and total factor productivity.     

劳动力市场歧视与高校扩招的影响--基于信号博弈模型的结构估计

本文建立了一个信号博弈模型,在该模型框架下实证研究了大学教育的人力资本积累效应对大学生收入溢价的贡献以及高校扩招对大学生非大学生收入差距的影响.基于模型的结构估计(structural estimation)证明该模型能很好地拟合大学生和非大学生的工资分布.模型的模拟结果表明:(1)大学教育的人力资本积累效应约能解释大学生工资溢价的72%;(2)与基于劳动力供给角度的分析不同,高校扩招可能通过劳动力市场歧视加剧大学生非大学生的收入差距.     

SKILL BIAS AND EMPLOYMENT FRICTIONS IN THE U.S. LABOR MARKET 1970–1990*

This article studies simultaneous changes in four labor market variables: the unemployment rates for college and high‐school graduates, the education wage premium, and the level of college participation. It develops an equilibrium search and matching model of the labor market where education is endogenously determined. Then the model is used to investigate quantitatively whether the change in the above labor market variables from 1970 to 1990 in the United States can be traced to changes in the environment. A skill‐biased change in technology together with an increase in employment frictions can explain much of the observed variation in these variables.     

The Rising College Premium in the Eighties: Return to College or Return to Unobserved Ability?

The changes in the distribution of earnings during the 1980s have been studied extensively. The two most striking characteristics of the decade are (a) a large increase in the college/high school wage gap, and (b) a substantial rise in the variance of wage residuals. While this second phenomenon is typically implicitly attributed to an increase in the demand for unobserved skill, most work in this area fails to acknowledge that this same increase in demand for unobserved skill could drive the evolution of the measured college premium. In its simplest form, if higher ability individuals are more likely to attend college, then the increase in the college wage premium may be due to a increase in the relative demand for high ability workers rather than an increase in the demand for skills accumulated in college. This paper develops and estimates a dynamic programming selection model in order to investigate the plausibility of this explanation. The results are highly suggestive that an increase in the demand for unobserved ability could play a major role in the growing college premium.     

Higher education enrolment in Bangladesh: does the wage premium matter?

This paper empirically examines the decisions of individuals to enrol in a course of tertiary education in Bangladesh, focussing on the period 1999 to 2009. Of particular interest is whether the wage premium―the gap in wage earnings between tertiary and secondary school graduates―is associated with decisions to enrol in tertiary education. The analytical framework used here is the human capital theory, which is tested through a discrete choice model. Using data from Bangladesh Labour Force Surveys, empirical results suggest that the wage premium is positively associated with decisions of males to enrol in tertiary education, while for females there appears to be no such association. A battery of robustness tests supports our results.     

贸易自由化、有偏的学习效应与发展中国家的工资差异

本文构建了一个模型来研究贸易自由化对熟练劳动力与非熟练劳动力工资差异的影响,从而解释发展中国家工资差异之谜。在贸易自由化之后,发展中国家接触和学习到相对多的与熟练劳动力匹配的技术知识,因此,和生产与非熟练劳动力匹配的技术知识相比,生产与熟练劳动力匹配的技术知识的生产力水平上升相对较多。也就是说,学习效应是有偏的。因为技术知识的生产是熟练劳动力密集型的,所以学习效应会导致对熟练劳动力需求的增加,扩大工资差异。同时,有偏的学习效应会使技术进步更偏向于技能密集型,从而进一步导致对熟练劳动力需求的增加,扩大工资差异。     

City Size and Wage Disparity in Segmented Labour Market in China

The relation between city size and wage inequality is well established for Western countries. This paper finds that city size–wage premium exists across Chinese cities to a lower extent than the Western world. Further, using a simplified model on the Chinese Household Income Project survey data, we find that the city size–wage premium varies with difference in skills among urban citizens. The variation amounts to 50% more for the high‐skill workers compared with their low‐skill counterparts. Moreover, owing to the presence of segmented labour market, the patterns of city size–wage premium and city size–wage inequality premium are notably different for the migrants, who receive a much lesser wage than the citizens and do not experience wage variation owing to their skill heterogeneity.     

Education expansion and decline in tertiary premium in Brazil: 1995-2013

Using Brazil National Household Survey 1995–2013 data, this paper examines how the education expansion in Brazil impacted the tertiary premium through the interaction of relative supply and relative demand. The identification of the impact of relative demand on education premium provides an empirical testing of the Heckscher-Ohlin model in the context of Brazil. The results suggest that the change in relative supply had converged the education premium thus converged the wage income distribution. The results also show that there was no decrease in relative demand for skilled workers in Brazil in the past two decades, which is inconsistent with what the Heckscher-Ohlin model predicts.     

Efficiency Wages and the Regulated Firm

This paper develops empirical tests of "efficiency-wage" hypotheses and applies these tests to data on a regulated firm. According to efficiency-wage theory, wage levels positively affect employee performance and, moreover, cost minimization requires that employers pay a wage premium above the supply price of labor. To explore these issues, we use company-level data to estimate production and quit functions that allow for efficiency-wage effects. Our empirical results support efficiency-wage theory: payment of a wage premium reduces the firm's quit rate, raises labor productivity, and lowers operating costs. These findings call into question the regulatory practice of disallowing labor expenses when the regulated firm's wage levels exceed market averages.     

A contribution to the public–private wage inequality debate

This paper studies the public–private wage inequality in Romania. Although public sector employment is perceived as safer and offering more benefits, we find that in Romania it also offers higher wages, after controlling for experience, education and gender. This result is at odds with the negative premium uncovered in other transition economies. The public–private wage premium is increasing across the wage distribution, leading to more inequality in the public sector. Decomposing the wage premium into the effect of personal characteristics, coefficients and residuals, we show that only about half of this premium can be attributed to personal characteristics, especially in the top half of the wage distribution. We also find that the number of other public sector employees in the family is a significant driver of public sector employment, facilitating access to jobs. However, the effects of self‐selection are negligible, the premium being still positive and significant after controlling for this.     

Education,mobility and the college wage premium

Motivated by large educational differences in geographic mobility, this paper considers a simple dynamic extension of Roy׳s (1951) model and analyzes it using new evidence on net versus excess mobility and the individual-level relationship between mobility and wages. According to the model, the dispersion of a labor income shock specific to a worker-location match is greater for more educated workers and accounts for large educational differences in mobility. In the model, labor mobility raises both the average wage and the college wage premium, a prediction consistent with differences between Europe and the U.S.     

International Trade and Collective Bargaining Outcomes: Evidence from German Employer–Employee Data

In theoretical trade models with variable mark‐ups and collective wage bargaining, exposure to international markets might reduce the exporter wage premium. We test this prediction using linked German employer–employee data covering the years 1996–2007. To separate the rent‐sharing mechanism from assortative matching, we exploit individual worker information to construct profitability measures that are free of skill composition. Our results show that rent‐sharing is less pronounced in more export‐intensive firms or in more open industries. The exporter wage premium is highest for low‐productivity firms. In line with theory, these findings are unique to the subsample of plants covered by collective bargaining.     

Is utility additive? The case of alcohol

By using the quantile regressions of earnings equation, we find that the educational wage premium is higher in industries with rapid technological change than in industries with slower technological change at every decile in the distribution of wage residuals. The wage premium associated with the technological change is mostly explained by the returns to workers' unobserved heterogeneities, which are correlated with education, rather than the rents of high-tech industries.     

Assessing policies to equalize opportunity using an equilibrium model of educational and occupational choices

The inter-generational correlation of education in the U.S. is tremendous. For instance, in PSID data from 1990, young males with college-educated parents had a 70% chance of attending college. But those with high school drop-out parents had only a 15% chance. In this paper, we analyze the impact of college attendance bonus schemes designed to increase college attendance rates (and PV of lifetime income) of youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. Of course, policies that increase the supply of skilled labor may reduce the college wage premium (see Heckman et al. [Heckman, James, Lochner, Lance and Taber, Christopher, Explaining rising wage inequality: explorations with a dynamic equilibrium model of labor earnings with heterogeneous agents, Review of Economic Dynamics, 1 (1998a), 1–58; Heckman, James, Lochner, Lance and Taber, Christopher, General-equilibrium treatment effects: a study of tuition policy, American Economic Review, 88:2 (1998b), 381–386]). This may have the unintended consequence of wiping out most of the gains to the targeted groups. The strength of such equilibrium effects on wages depends on the substitutability between different types of labor. Thus, it is important to evaluate education subsidies within an equilibrium framework that allows for flexible patterns of substitution across factor inputs. This is exactly what we do here, using an overlapping generations equilibrium model of the U.S. labor market fit to PSID data from 1968 to 1996. The model allows for imperfect substitution among types of labor differentiated by education, gender, age and ten (1-digit level) occupations — a much finer differentiation than has been considered in prior work.We find that very large college attendance bonuses are necessary to equate college attendance rates between youth whose parents had only high school degrees or were high school dropouts and youth whose parents attended at least some college. The size of these bonuses far exceeds any reasonable measure of college costs; suggesting the “costs” the bonuses overcome are primarily psychic or effort costs. For example, youth from disadvantaged backgrounds may be poorly prepared for college. This suggests that bonuses targeted at college age youth are probably a very inefficient way to reduce inequality. Earlier intervention is likely called for.     

Competitive search markets with heterogeneous workers

This paper extends the concept of competitive search markets to the case with heterogeneous workers. If offers can condition on workers’ productivity as this depends on some formal qualification, the equilibrium is separating and efficient, though there is wage compression. If offers cannot condition on workers’ productivity, the nature of the equilibrium depends on the size of the workers’ productivity difference. For intermediate values of the productivity difference, separation is achieved only by paying high types an “efficiency wage” premium. We discuss several implications for wage dispersion and efficiency.