Wage inequality dynamics and trade exposure in South Korea

South Korea has experienced a great U-turn in its inequality trends during the past few decades. In this paper, we explore the role of international trade in its wage inequality dynamics over the 1998–2012 period, using a unique household panel survey. Our analysis reveals that most of the overall wage inequality occurs within sectors and educational groups rather than between them. However, the share in total inequality of the “between” variation across sectors and educational groups has moderately increased over time. Furthermore, we document that almost the entire aggregate wage inequality in both manufacturing and services occurs within different trade-exposure categories rather than between them, and this pattern is persistent through time. These results suggest that international trade might not be the main driving force behind the rising wage dispersion in South Korea in the last two decades.     

Upstreamness,exports, and wage inequality: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing data

In this paper we investigate within-firm wage inequality across heterogeneous industries that hold different positions in the domestic value chain, and across heterogeneous firms that have different exposure to trade. We find that the wage inequality problem is more severe in upstream industries than in downstream ones, and among firms with greater exposure to trade (i.e., larger export share of sales). Our findings support both classic and new new trade theories on wage inequality. In downstream industries where Chinese firms are typically engaged in processing and assembly work with intensive use of unskilled labor, trade leads to less wage inequality within firms. However, trade also introduces pro-competitive effects which usually benefit exporters and their skilled labor. The results hold after various checks and controls for robustness.     

Wage vs. industry subsidies: coping with technology related unemployment in a globalized economy

In the past, economic policy has largely adopted a sectoral approach to technology-related unemployment. More recently though, wage subsidies have gained attention as an alternative means of reemployment, with the dispute on how best to cope with unemployment still unsettled. However, despite the fact that results may differ, research mostly assumed a closed-economy setting. Based on a HOS model with factor-augmenting technical change and labor-market rigidities, the paper examines the differences of these two subsidization schemes on output and employment. Since both schemes work through different channels, namely the demand versus the supply side, effects differ not only in magnitude. The paper includes a comparative calibration exercise for the case of Germany.

Wage and employment effects in the EU of international trade with the emerging economies

The paper investigates whether significant HOS effects are present in the EU from trade liberalization with the emerging economies. Regarding wage inequality, there is only evidence of a trade-induced technological change, but biased towards thelower-skilled-labor-intensive sectors. Relative wages in the EU member states are not affected differently. Trade liberalization under ‘European assumptions’, however, could affect primarily relative factor demand. A flexible cost function approach shows that import competition from the emerging economies influenced relative labor demand in favor of the higher skilled, implying an intrasectoral rather than an intersectoral specialization in skill-intensive activities. JEL no. F11, F14     

International trade and within-sector wage inequality: The case of South Korea

This paper studies which factors contributed to the changes in wage inequality in Korean manufacturing over the last three decades. By adopting Akerman et al. (2013)’s decomposition method, we examine the relative importance of within-sector and between-sector wage variations in Korean manufacturing over the period of 1980–2012. Our analytic results confirm that within-sector wage variation explains the lion’s share of overall wage inequality. Taking this finding into account, we estimate the impacts of international trade, skilled-biased technological change and labor market conditions on within-sector wage inequality in Korea. Our estimation results suggest that there was a structural change in determinants of wage inequality before and after the mid-1990s. The influence of international trade mainly through heightened import competition on wage dispersion became relatively more conspicuous over the last two decades.     

Foreign direct investment, intellectual property rights, and wage inequality in China

This article incorporates foreign direct investment (FDI) and product differentiation in a general equilibrium trade model. The analysis shows that freer trade and FDI will upgrade China's technology, improve its skills of labor, and increase the competitiveness of local firms in the international market. At the same time, the relative wage of skilled labor to unskilled labor will rise. The size of this rise will be affected by the degree of protection for intellectual property rights. These theoretical results are consistent with empirical evidence. The analysis provides insights in coordinating policies on FDI, labor market reform, and intellectual property rights protection.     

员工参与与工资决定——基于企业工资集体协商的实证分析

本文利用在湖北企业职工收入分配调查中所得到的数据,运用对应分析方法研究企业开展工资集体协商对职工工资决定的影响。实证结果显示,尽管在政府推动下我国一些企业工资集体协商工作已开展起来了,并产生了一定的积极效应,但由于多数企业员工参与不够,真正平等意义上的工资集体协商制度还没有形成,因此,目前企业工资并非是由企业与员工双方平等协商共同决定的。本文最后对这一结果产生的原因做了进一步的分析,并提出应大力加强企业民主制度的建设,加大工资集体协商等相关制度的建设,并通过发挥各级劳动关系的协调作用,营造良好的氛围和社会环境,以促进企业职工工资决定机制的形成。     

Wage increases, wage convergence, and the Lewis turning point in China

We examine the wage trends of ordinary workers and the wage convergence between unskilled and skilled workers in China. First, we find that wages in all non-agricultural sectors, wages of migrant workers, and wages of hired workers in the agricultural sector have increased dramatically since 2003. Second, through comparing wage differentials between migrant and urban resident workers and between heterogeneous education groups within migrant workers, and by investigating the changes in the contribution of the returns to education to wage differentials, we find that the wages of unskilled and skilled workers have converged. Both the increasing wage trends and wage convergence are interpreted as evidence supporting the hypothesis that China has passed what can be called the Lewis turning point in the industrial sector. We conclude that the sustainability of economic growth in China requires an upgrading of labor market institutions to accommodate the merging of the rural and urban labor forces.     

技术革新、产业层级分工与工资差异

本文在一般均衡的框架中,运用匹配与分类的思想,综合考虑了技术变革所引起的沟通成本的降低和技术进步对劳动力技能产生的“技能贬值”效应,将技术进步、产业组织结构变化与工资差距三者相结合建立模型。该模型能够将产业组织架构内生化,对不同能力的员工进行生产职能分配,并能给出技术变革与工资水平差距的内在联系;同时,本文利用珠三角的经济发展事实对以上模型结论提供了经验证据。     

市场潜力、外部性与中国地区工资差异

改革开放以来，中国地区间经济增长率的差异直接导致了地区间工资差距呈现持续扩大的现象。本文以新经济地理学的空间工资结构理论为指导．运用1997-2004年省级面板数据，着眼于市场潜力、产业外部性和城市外部性三方面来考察现阶段中国地区工资差距的变化趋势。研究结果表明，市场潜力的空间分布与产业和城市的外部性是造成中国地区工资差异的重要因素。     

Why is the gender earnings gap greater in Korea than in the United States?

It has long been recognized that the gender earnings gap varies across countries. This paper examines the relatively higher gender earnings gap found in the Korean labor market compared to the US labor market. Using the data set representative of the population for both countries, I found that the significant part of the differences in the gender earnings gap simply arise from the differences in the observed characteristics of women among two countries. In particular, relatively lower labor market experience, current job tenure, and educational attainment by Korean female workers play dominant roles in explaining the observed higher earnings gap. In addition, wage structure and labor market discrimination seem to be against Korean female workers compared to US female workers. J. Japanese Int. Economies 21 (4) (2007) 455–469.     

The Chinese State Enterprise Sector: Labour Market Reform and the Impact on Male–Female Wage Structure

The paper examines the wage structure in the Chinese state enterprise sector between 1981 and 1987. This period is of particular interest given the introduction of major labour market reforms in China during the early 1980s. In essence the reforms represented a movement away from administratively determined prices towards a market–oriented system combined with a relatively flexible system of labour allocation. The Juhn, Murphy and Pierce (1991) decomposition is employed to shed light on the role of changing labour market institutions over the period.
JEL classification : J 31; J 16     

劳动力供给、生产率与外商直接投资工资外溢效应

本文利用中国1999-2007年441个四位码工业行业数据,考察外商直接投资在产业内部和产业之间,通过直接影响劳动力市场供给方式和间接生产率外溢方式对中国内资行业的工资外溢效应。研究结果表明:(1)外商直接投资(FDI)通过直接和间接方式对中国内资行业工资在产业内部和产业之间都产生了显著的正向外溢效应;(2)国有行业比重提高会显著促进FDI通过劳动力供给方式对内资行业产生工资外溢效应,但同样会显著阻碍FDI通过间接的生产率外溢方式对内资行业产生工资外溢效应;(3)FDI对内资劳动密集型行业的工资外溢效应显著高于资本密集型行业,FDI进入显著缩小了中国不同劳动生产率工业部门的工资收入差距。     

农业转移人口地域歧视的工资效应分析

基于广东省顺德区的调查数据,使用无条件分位数回归及分解方法,文章分析了外来与本地农业转移人口的工资效应。结果显示:外来与本地农业转移人口面临不同的工资决定机制;地域差异对工资的影响存在异质性,只有收入在88%分位点以上的外来农业转移人口才会受到地域歧视的影响,且随着收入分位点的上升,工资受地域的影响变大;地域因素与人力资本因素交织,通过婚姻、教育、工作岗位和经验等变量的作用产生影响;教育对于外来农业转移人口的工资具有增长效应,但无法完全消除地域歧视的影响。因此,除了提高外来农业转移人口的教育水平,还需改善外来农业转移人口融入城市的条件,促进外来农业转移人口家庭融入城市。     

市场化改革中的大学毕业生性别工资差异及歧视

以往文献认为,市场机制的不断完善会逐渐消除劳动力市场性别歧视,然而本文发现这一结论并不适用于目前大学毕业生劳动力市场。通过对不同市场化程度企业工作的河北省2007届大学毕业生抽样数据的实证分析发现,随着我国市场化进程的深入,不但大学毕业生性别工资差异明显扩大,而且歧视尤其是反向歧视所占比重也在加剧。本文认为,大学毕业生劳动力市场受传统文化影响程度还远远大于市场竞争作用的发挥。故只有进一步加大市场竞争,才能逐步消除劳动力市场的性别歧视因素。     

市场一体化、机会均等化政策与中国工资率差异——基于市场获得的考察

本文利用中国1995-2008期间主要年份的30个制造业行业样本数据,经测算发现无论最终品还是中间品市场获得在我国中西部呈现出阶梯型递减形态,且地区差距并没有收敛趋势,这与我国地区工资差异化保持一致;实证考察还发现多个类型市场获得都较具说服力地促进了工资率的提升,而市场自由化有利于强化核心区向外围区的扩散力,并与机会均等化政策一致地促进了东部沿海核心区和外围区市场获得的空间均衡化,并缩减了工资率的区域差距,因而“十二五”期间我国更需要注重机会平等的“包容性增长”.     

健康人力资本与性别工资差异

现有对性别工资差异的研究大多是基于教育、经验等人力资本对工资的影响进行分析而忽视了健康人力资本的作用。本文运用中国健康与营养调查数据,将健康人力资本引入工资决定模型,对我国劳动力市场上健康人力资本对工资的影响以及性别工资差异进行了实证分析。研究发现：健康人力资本是影响我国居民工资收入的重要因素;我国劳动力市场上存在明显的性别工资差异,女性工资显著低于男性;利用Oaxaca—Cotton的分解方法发现性别工资差异中大约只有20％可以被个体特征合理解释,余下的部分被认为是对女性的歧视和没能观测到的因素所致。健康人力资本对工资的边际贡献在性别之间的差异是性别工资差异的重要来源。     

城镇就业市场上劳动力工资扭曲程度测度

本文利用CHIPS2007数据库,基于随机前沿模型对我国城镇就业市场上劳动力的工资扭曲程度进行测度。研究结果表明：（1）在城镇就业市场上,由于工资扭曲现象的存在,劳动力实际获得的工资要比他们的边际生产率低45％～60％;（2）已婚、子女个数较少、本地、拥有失业保险、男性、大中型企业的劳动力工资扭曲程度要低于未婚、子女个数较多、外来、没有失业保险、女性、小型企业的劳动力;（3）中低工资水平的劳动力工资扭曲程度要比高工资水平的劳动力严重,且中低工资水平劳动力工资扭曲程度的方差更大。由此,本文提出推进就业市场的市场化改革,完善就业市场信息网络,从而减轻劳动力工资扭曲程度。     

中国城市正规就业与非正规就业的工资差异——基于非正规就业异质性的收入差距分解

本文使用2010年中国城市劳动力抽样调查数据,考虑非正规就业内部异质性分解了不同就业类型的工资差距来源。结果表明:在控制了就业的选择偏误和个人特征后,虽然不能解释正规就业者与非正规受雇者工资差异来源的全部,但两类就业群体工资差异的大部分被个人可观测特征所解释。其中,特征效应占79.3%,分割效应解释了20.7%的工资差异来源;正规就业者和自我经营者的收入差异则完全可以由两类就业群体之间的特征差异来解释。这在一定程度上反映出劳动力市场是竞争且具有一定效率的,政策调节的重点应根据劳动者的可观测特征,实施市场为导向的措施来减少劳动力市场上的工资性收入差距。     

Describing and decomposing post-apartheid income inequality in South Africa

This paper describes the changes in inequality in South Africa over the post-apartheid period, using income data from 1993 and 2008. Having shown that the data are comparable over time, it then profiles aggregate changes in income inequality, showing that inequality has increased over the post-apartheid period because an increased share of income has gone to the top decile. Social grants have become much more important as sources of income in the lower deciles. However, income source decomposition shows that the labour market has been and remains the main driver of aggregate inequality. Inequality within each racial group has increased and both standard and new methodologies show that the contribution of between-race inequality has decreased. Both aggregate and within-group inequality are responding to rising unemployment and rising earnings inequality. Those who have neither access to social grants nor the education levels necessary to integrate successfully into a harsh labour market are especially vulnerable.