Why Do Foreign-Owned Firms Pay More? The Role of On-the-Job Training

While foreign-owned firms have consistently been found to pay higher wages than domestic firms to what appear to be equally productive workers, the causes of this remain unresolved. In a two-period bargaining framework we show that if training is more productive and specific in foreign firms, foreign firm workers will have a steeper wage profile and thus acquire a premium over time. Using a rich employer-employee matched data set we verify that the foreign wage premium is only acquired by workers over time spent in the firm and only by those that receive on-the-job training, thus providing empirical support for a firm-specific human capital acquisition explanation. JEL no. F23, J24     

Efficiency Wages,Interfirm Comparison,and Unemployment

The paper presents an efficiency wage model where worker effort depends on own wages relative both to wages of other workers in the firm and to similar workers in other firms. First, we show how the Solow conditions are modified if internal comparison effects are at work. Second, we discuss the effect of internal wage comparison on wage inequality within firms. Third, we study unemployment and relative wage determination within a general equilibrium model, and analyze the effect of technological change and various tax policies on equilibrium unemployment and relative wages. Finally, the short-run effects of aggregate demand shocks are analyzed.     

Export Activity,Firm Size and Wage Structure: Evidence from Taiwanese Manufacturing Firms*

This study adopts a semiparametric smooth coefficient model to evaluate the export–wage premiums, firm size–wage premiums, and the wage gap between skilled and unskilled labor. Particular focus is placed upon widespread evidence indicating that pay levels in ‘large’ and ‘export‐oriented’ firms are higher than in their ‘small’ and ‘domestic‐oriented’ counterparts. Applying the firm‐level data for Taiwanese manufacturing firms, we find a positive export–wage premium for skilled workers and a negative export–wage premium for unskilled workers. The hypothesis of a constant export premium across firm size is rejected. While most of the export–wage premiums for skilled labor can be attributed to the small and medium firms, the large exporting firms have a significant adverse effect on wages for unskilled labor. Moreover, our results suggest that the firm size–wage premiums for skilled workers are larger than those for unskilled workers. The wage gap between the two skill groups is also sensitive to size categories.     

The impact of foreign direct investment in China on employment adjustments in Taiwan: Evidence from matched employer–employee data

Using a unique matched employer–employee dataset on Taiwanese manufacturing, we examine the impact of foreign direct investment in China on domestic employment adjustments controlling for firm and worker heterogeneity as well as for potential endogeneity of firms’ expansion in China. Our findings suggest that workers employed at firms with higher levels of investment in China are more likely to leave the firm, compared with workers at firms with zero or lower levels of investment in China. We provide evidence that foreign expansion in China decreases worker employment security at parent companies, particularly for low-skilled workers. Employment adjustments through employer-to-employer transitions are found to be highly associated with wage losses, with the strongest wage effects for low-skilled workers who shift employment between industries. Moreover, we find no evidence that FDI in China contributes to skill upgrading at parent companies.     

外资所有权与工资升水——来自中国制造业的证据

很多研究发现外商投资企业比内资企业对同等情况下的工人所付工资要高,本文利用中国省际制造业分大类数据对此进行了实证研究,研究的结果表明,在控制了各种对工资影响因素(产业、地区、企业、工人素质)后,外资所有权工资升水显著存在,大约为10%。同时还对平均薪酬进行了研究,外资所有权薪酬升水大约为7%。此外,本文还得出了其他一些有意义的结论。     

Firm specific human capital and unemployment in a growing economy

This study analyzes how the intensive use of firm specific human capital in firms affects the unemployment rate. For this purpose, I introduce into an equilibrium search model the possibility that workers quit their jobs. A worker changes his job when a firm that newly enters into the market offers a higher wage than his current wage. If firm specific human capital is important, it is difficult for a worker to quit his job, and, in consequence, the number of workers who quit their jobs is small. Thus, the unemployment rate is low. If the speed of technology obsolescence is high, the unemployment rate is high.     

Inducing political action by workers

A firm aiming to influence a governmental policy may benefit from political action by its stakeholders, such as workers. This article studies the behavior of such a firm, showing that workers will have a greater incentive to engage in costly political activity against the governmental policy the greater their number and the higher the wage. The firm may, therefore, profit from paying above‐market wages and from hiring what might appear to be an inefficiently large number of workers. And because unions may overcome free‐rider problems of uncoordinated political effort, a firm may favor unionization, or be less opposed to unionization than it would otherwise be. The results of this article can also explain why firms may little reduce wages in a recession, and why the higher wages paid by unionized firms do not reduce survival rates of these firms.     

Trade liberalization and wage inequality: Evidence from Korea

This paper investigates the heterogeneous income distribution effects of trade liberalization using Korean survey data from years of 2000–2015. Following the Stolper-Samuelson theorem most of previous research studying the effects of trade liberalization on wage differences focus on workers’ characteristics (e.g., skilled or unskilled) while heterogeneity within the same worker group has not been yet substantially investigated. To fill this gap, this paper provides empirical evidence of wage inequality across firms within the same group of workers caused by trade liberalization, potentially implied in the new-new trade models with firm heterogeneity. Employing a difference-in-differences (DID) specification, we find that the wages of unskilled workers in Korea have increased since its FTAs with more advanced countries, such as members of EU and the US, came into effect, while the effects on the wages of skilled workers are negative but not statistically significant. We also show that wage effects are heterogeneous across firms within unskilled and skilled worker groups, while the positive effects are statistically significant and largest for unskilled workers in medium-large sized firms. These findings are in line with both traditional and new-new trade models.     

Wage inequality and firm performance: Professional basketball's natural experiment

The purpose of this inquiry is to utilize a natural experiment from professional basketball to examine how wage inequality impacts the productivity of the firm. The literature suggests that wage inequality may promote firm productivity if higher wages are necessary to limit the damage potential of certain workers. In contrast, other writers have trumpeted the productivity gains from worker cooperation and thus, argued that wage disparity lowers firm output. During the 1990s, the National Basketball Association experienced dramatic increases in the level of wage inequality. The empirical evidence reported here supports a third possibility. Specifically, wage inequality and firm productivity are not related.     

Do Exporting Firms Pay Higher Wages? Evidence from Kenya's Manufacturing Sector

Abstract: When trade liberalization was first embarked on in Kenya some 20 years ago, a key argument against it was that it would reduce domestic wages, as exporting firms sought to remain competitive versus, for example, the low‐cost Asian countries. A counter argument was that manufactured exports require more elaborate design, supervision, packaging and handling, and thus a more educated labor force than production for the domestic market. To attract such skills, exporting firms would need to pay higher wages than non‐exporting ones. This paper uses data from Kenyan manufacturing to study the impact of trade liberalization on earnings, distinguishing between exporting and non‐exporting firms. In particular, it investigates whether exporting firms paid a wage‐premium to their employees. The study uses manufacturing firm survey data from a World Bank regional project. The study has three important findings: (1) There was a large and significant effect of exporting on wages in the first decade of trade liberalization. During the first half of the 1990s, workers in exporting firms earned up to 30 percent more than those engaged in non‐exporting firms. The results are robust even after controlling for individual and firm‐level characteristics such as employee demographics, productivity, firm location and occupation. (2) After a decade of trade liberalization, exporting ceased to be a significant determinant of wages in Kenyan manufacturing, after controlling for productivity and firm location. (3) During the 2000s, casual or irregular employment became a more common feature of exporting firms. The results suggest that while higher wages were important in attracting skilled labor to exporting firms at the beginning of trade liberalization in the 1990s, domestic competition has since reduced the wage premium. Cost cutting pressures are instead reflected in the substitution of casual and low wage labor for permanent and better educated labor and in increased automation.     

Is Bigger Still Better? The Decline of the Wage Premium at Large Firms

This study shows that the wage premium paid by large firms fell over the past 20 years and that this decline in the size premium is most pronounced among the least educated workers. Empirical evidence supports several explanations for the shrinking size premium. First, there has been a convergence in the returns to worker characteristics at large and small firms over time. Second, small and large firms are hiring more workers with similar characteristics. Particularly important are the declining share of workers at large manufacturing firms and the rising share of workers at large retail firms. Also, the greater decline of unionism at large firms has contributed significantly to the decline in the size premium.     

Is wage compression a necessary condition for firm-financed general training?

In recent contributions, Acemoglu and Pischke argue that wagecompression induces firms to invest in general training. However,they consider only absolute wage compression. We extend theirapproach to consider relative wage compression and argue thatwage compression as generally understood in the literature isof the latter type. We show that factors associated with anincrease in the absolute difference between output and wagesmight have no effect on the ratio of output and wages (e.g.,if the output and wage of every worker doubles, there is absolutewage compression but not relative wage compression). Importantly,we show that, although relative wage compression is not a necessarycondition for firms’ willingness to pay for general training,it does increase firms’ incentives to pay for workers’general training. We show that the departure from the competitiveframework highlighted in Acemoglu and Pischke is much more generalthan implied by their analysis.     

Gender,productivity, and the nature of work and pay: evidence from the late nineteenth‐century tobacco industry

Women have typically been paid less than men throughout history. We investigate earnings in Swedish cigar making around 1900. Strength was unimportant, yet the gender wage gap was large. Differences in characteristics, such as age and experience, and different jobs within firms, account for two‐thirds of the gap overall, and the entire gap for piece‐rate workers. Firms were as willing to employ women as men in the better‐paying piece‐rate section, and women were willing to take those jobs. In contrast, discrimination was extensive in the time‐rate section. Men in this section benefited from greater outside opportunities and customary wages elsewhere. Theory holds that labour market discrimination will reduce profitability, and make firm survival harder, a proposition that has never been tested historically. We find that cigar firms that feminized their workforces most extensively were most likely to survive. Product market competition prevented firms employing (overpaid) men to any great extent. We argue that economic historians must interpret industry‐specific gender wage differentials in the context of workers' outside opportunities, and in the context of product markets, which can—and in this case did—limit firms' room for manoeuvre.     

The minimum wage,exports, and firm performance: Evidence from Indonesia

This paper examines the interrelationship between changes in the provincial minimum wage, firms’ export behavior, and firms’ performance in Indonesia. In this regard, we apply a two-stage least squares regression analysis to detailed firm-level data of manufacturing enterprises during 2002–2014. We find that an increase in the minimum wage is associated with a decrease in a firm’s employment and productivity, but increase in its probability of exporting and markup. We also use the 2012 minimum wage reform in Indonesia to conduct a difference-in-difference analysis to further mitigate the potential endogeneity of minimum wage regulation. Our findings are generally robust to alternative estimation methods. Moreover, quantile regression results indicate that the average wage, firm size, and the education level of workers also affect the predictions. Above all, this study suggests that Indonesian exports and the country’s comparative advantage in international markets are not negligibly affected by higher labor costs caused by the growth in the minimum wage.     

Long-Term Attachments and Long-Run Firm Rates of Return

Long-term attachments between workers and firms are common. Numerous studies have examined worker returns to tenure, but little is known of firm returns to firm-worker matches. Yet these attachments represent a human capital asset quasi-held by the firm, which is not captured by traditional accounting measures of firm assets. Firms with large quasi-holdings of human capital will have higher measured return on assets, other things equal. Analysis of data on 250 large manufacturing firms supports the view that firms profit from long-term attachments with their workers. Consequently, unmeasured human capital assets contribute to the explanation of persistence in measured long-run excess profits across firms.     

The Impact of Minimum Wages on Job Training: An Empirical Exploration with Establishment Data

Human capital theory suggests that workers may finance on-the-job training by accepting lower wages during the training period, Minimum wage laws could reduce job training, then, to the extent they prevent low-wage workers from offering sufficient wage cuts to finance training. Empirical findings on the relationship between minimum wages and job training have failed to reach a consensus. Previous research has relied primarily on survey data from individual workers that typically lack both detailed measures of job training and important information about the characteristics of firms. This study addresses the issue of minimum wages and on-the-job training with a unique employer survey. We find no evidence indicating that minimum wages reduce the average hours of training of trained employees and little to suggest that minimum wages reduce the percentage of workers receiving training.     

How do firms respond to minimum wage regulation in China? Evidence from Chinese private firms

To study how firms respond to minimum wage regulation in China, this paper empirically explores a number of dimensions along which firms adjust in response to minimum wage differences, using three waves of a national survey of Chinese private firms. Consistent with the predictions of economic theory, we find that private firms in China respond to minimum wage increases by cutting various fringe benefits such as pension and insurance, and by laying off low-skilled workers and short-term workers. Despite these adjustments, firms cannot fully mitigate the detrimental effects on firm profitability when faced with adverse demand shocks because of the wage rigidity introduced by minimum wage regulation. These findings highlight the unintended consequences of minimum wage regulation on the private sector in China.     

山东省城市农民工就业现状研究——基于烟台及周边县市的调研

文章立足于对山东烟台中小企业的调研结果，阐述了城市农民工的就业现状。在调研过程中，发现了一些问题，有的是具有普遍性的，比如民工荒的出现，企业人员流动性大等，有的是基于烟台本土现实的，比如，大多企业实行计件工资制、地方政府职能缺位等。针对这些问题，也提出了相应的政策措施，从政府和企业两个方面分四个层次来说明。     

Becker’s utility approach to discrimination: A review of the issues

Conclusion In general, most studies have been unable to confirm the predictions of the Becker utility approach to discrimination by employers and employees. This lack of verification would seem to indicate that the observed wage differentials are generated by a different or more complex process. However, such a strong statement is premature in view of the measurement problem that has been present in most studies. Becker’s model is a characterization of how individual employers and employees behave in the market. Empirical testing of Becker’s model requires detailed information about the degree and level of contact between the races, the wage rates paid to each race, skills of each worker, and the manner of employment and placement of each race. Invariably the lack of such detailed firm data, particularly wage rates, forces researchers to use aggregative data of income or earnings averages and occupation of workers employed within a state or broadly defined industry in order to generalize how firms behave in the market. The necessity of using such data, however, results in a dichotomy between the original parameters in Becker’s model and the data utilized. Clearly the lack of a significant association between the data utilized and the parameters specified in Becker’s model undermines the credibility of such empirical testing. The empirical analysis on the implications of Becker’s theory of discrimination has left a wide variety of unsettled questions and much remains to be done.     

Economic geography and inequality in China: Did improved market access widen spatial wage differences?

New economic geography (NEG) models predict that costly transport and the spatial distribution of demand affect the profits firms can earn in different locations, leading to higher wages for workers employed in cities with better geographic access to markets. In light of the ongoing economic integration and market reforms that occurred in China after 1995, we use three waves of Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) data to measure the extent to which the influence of market access on wages changed and affected wage dispersion across Chinese cities over the next 12 years. Employing the gravity-based method of Redding and Venables (2004) to calculate the market access available to firms located in each city, we test whether the elasticity of the wage with respect to local market access increased over time. We find that in all three years market access of the worker's location has a positive and significant influence on the wage. Consistent with extensive labor market reforms of the late 1990s, the estimated wage elasticity doubles between 1995 and 2002 and is stable thereafter. Our estimates indicate that wages of all workers become more responsive to market forces in a manner consistent with NEG predictions, both skilled and unskilled and those working for state as well as private enterprises. We also provide evidence that these results are not driven by omission of other forms of agglomeration or by selection bias. Estimated spatial differences in nominal wages are large: a worker moving from an inland location to the coast in 2007 would have doubled his or her nominal wage. Counterfactual analysis indicates that spatial differences in market access contribute to wage inequality, but less so over time.