Free Trade and Wage Inequality in an Advanced Economy

This paper develops a formal model for examining the impact of free trade on the wage inequality in the Northern economy and the sensitivity of wage inequality indices to changes in causal factors within a general equilibrium setting.The model has three types of labor: sector-specific high-skilled, mobile unskilled and immobile unskilled labor. Thus, three types of wage inequality indices are derived. Selected comparative statics for changes in consumer expenditure shares, biased technological changes, changes in relative endowments are provided.     

Wage Reforms in China During the 1990s

In urban areas of China, economic reforms were intensely implemented after 1984. We focus on two primary aspects of the reforms in the 1990s, those pertaining to the labor market and to wages. Based on original interviews and two unique household data sets, we investigate the effects of the reforms. Our first finding is that the components of annual income have changed, reflecting fewer subsidies and more diverse sources of income (such as self-employment), over the period from 1995 to 1999. By 1999, the wage structure reflects less seniority-based pay, allows for more discretion in rewarding non-productive characteristics (gender and Communist Party membership, for example) and also permits more productivity-related pay (as evidenced by increased returns to human capital).     

The Effects of Trade on Research and Development

This paper examines how U.S. manufacturing firms' research budgets respond to international trade. Using a simple dynamic model of R&D investment and dynamic heterogeneous panel estimation techniques developed by Peseran, Shin, and Smith (1999), firm-level data reveal that increased import competition tends to reduce the research efforts of purely domestic U.S. manufacturing firms. Firms with foreign sales, however, respond very weakly to import competition, and increase research efforts in response to real exchange rate depreciation.     

加工贸易、资本密集度与工薪差距——基于中国加工贸易活动的研究

HO模型中的SS定理适用于一般贸易背景下的产业间贸易;FH模型中的SS定理可以解释发达国家外部采购中中间产品贸易对工薪差距的影响,但却不能解释中国等发展中国家的加工贸易活动对工薪差距的影响。本文的研究表明:对发展中国家来说,加工装配活动可能会拉大,也可能会缩小工薪差距;加工装配出口产品的资本密集度上升将会缩小工薪差距。对中国的实证研究结果显示,加工装配活动同时提高了高技术工人和低技术工人的收入水平,但拉大了工薪差距;加工出口产品资本密集度上升缩小了工薪差距;技术进步对加工装配行业工薪差距无实质影响;行业规模扩张缩小了工薪差距。所以,为提高收入水平,中国应继续发挥比较优势参与加工贸易活动,与此同时,中国还应不断提升加工出口产品的资本和技术密集程度,以缩小工薪差距。     

技能溢价研究新进展——基于技术和贸易的逻辑框架

技能溢价用来解释熟练技能工人与非熟练技能工人之间的工资差距问题。早期的技能溢价研究注重外生偏向型技术和H-O-S框架下南北贸易对技能溢价的影响。技能溢价的新解释则注重内生的技术变化和多元化的贸易形式、工会等制度因素以及人口结构变化等微观因素对技能溢价的影响。介绍和研究技能溢价现象对于解释我国不同技能工人之间的工资差异具有很强的借鉴意义。     

垂直专业化、贸易增长和收入分配不平等

文章从国际垂直分工引起贸易增长的视角研究中国收入分配不平等问题。文章认为,垂直专业化使得贸易扩张和收入在不同部门之间的分配产生差异,最后导致收入不平等的扩大。     

Wages and Wage Inequality in South Africa 1994–2011: Part 1 – Wage Measurement and Trends

We analyse the long‐term trends in wage inequality in South Africa, using household survey data. We show that the trends in household income inequality are largely driven by changes in wage inequality. Given the detailed nature of our series we show that measurement issues and breaks in the series need to be dealt with in order to draw robust conclusions from the data. Most standard inequality measures show that wage inequality has increased over the period. Nevertheless the choice of measure matters, because there are different trends in different parts of the distribution. It appears that the distribution below the median has become more compressed, while the top of the wage distribution has moved away from the median. The inequality in the labour market translates into even higher inequality in society given that high earners tend to live together with other high earners while low wage individuals often end up sharing their incomes with the unemployed. Furthermore there are many South Africans with access to no wage income. Given the trends analysed here it is not surprising that overall inequality in South Africa has not come down or has even increased since the end of apartheid.     

贸易结构、人力资本与全要素生产率增长——基于中国数据的经验研究

贸易开放带采的技术溢出是发展中国家提高全要素生产率的重要渠道，技术溢出的效果与贸易结构相关，并且需要一定的人力资本存量相结合。本文运用DEA方法测算1980—2006年中国的全要素生产率变化，然后通过基于ECM的Granger因果关系检验法分析贸易结构和人力资本联合指标对全要素生产率变化的影响。结果显示：相对于中低技术品，高技术品进口的技术溢出效果更明显，在更大程度上提高我国的全要素生产率；相对于人力资本的结构和分布，人力资本水平更直接地影响技术溢出的吸收效果，影响全要素生产率。因此，调整贸易结构和增加教育投资是强化贸易开放的全要素生产率效应的两个必然的政策选择。     

The Skill Content of Inter- and Intra-Industry Trade: Evidence for the United Kingdom

In this paper we investigate the relative importance of net exchanges of skills embodied in intra-industry and inter-industry trade for the UK’s trade with some middle income countries. We also separately measure the net exchanges of skills embodied in vertical and horizontal intra-industry trade (IIT). We find that there are substantial factor exchanges involved in IIT, implying that traditional factor content studies may have seriously underestimated the actual factor content of total trade flows. This means that the adjustment effects of IIT may be greater than is often presumed. We also find, in line with theory, that vertical IIT involves similar net exchanges of labour of different skills to that of inter-industry trade, while horizontal IIT involves much smaller net exchanges of skills. JEL no. F11, F14     

长三角城市的贸易集聚效应与上海的贸易辐射效应研究

腹地依托是贸易中心城市崛起的一项重要条件,理清上海与长三角周边城市之间的贸易空间格局是上海国际贸易中心建设推进过程中的关键性命题.文章运用全局Moran指数和局部Moran指数对长三角16个城市的进出口空间相关性进行了测算.计算结果表明:长三角地区贸易整体发展具有空间集聚效应,以加工贸易为主导的贸易模式导致进口集聚效应大于出口集聚效应;长三角区域内部贸易空间集聚效应呈现多样化,上海和苏州呈现高-高集聚,但低-低集聚依旧是长三角地区当前最主要的贸易集聚类型;上海是目前长三角地区唯一一个时区域整体进出口具有空间辐射效应的城市,且辐射效应随着时间的推移正在不断增强;上海与宁波在带动长三角地区整体进出口发展层面不完全是纯粹的竞争关系;与此相反,随着南通港的全面启动,苏州却可能会对上海造成严峻挑战.     

比较优势、贸易结构与资本积累：对Mazumdar假说适用性的检验及其扩展

Mazumdar（1996）的研究认为：当一国为资本品净进口国和消费品净出口国时,资本品的进口将导致资本品价格的下降进而引致折旧率的下降,结合Solow增长模型,折旧率的下降将促使一国投资率的上升并引致资本积累。本文运用中国数据对这一假说检验后认为：该理论只适用于小国贸易模式,对于诸如中国这样的贸易大国,比较优势决定下的贸易结构完全符合Mazumdar条件,但资本品进口和消费品出口并没有对中国资本积累起到促进作用,根本原因在于这样的贸易结构往往提高了资本品一消费品的相对甚至绝对价格,并最终恶化了中国的贸易条件,使得贸易收益并不明显。本文围绕这些这些问题进行了一定层次的论证。     

基于贸易规模和结构的兵团与中亚五国贸易变动研究

运用结构分解分析技术及选取贸易规模和贸易结构两个影响贸易变动的变量,对兵团与中亚五国的贸易变动进行了研究。结果显示,贸易规模对贸易变动的影响较直观,贸易结构是更深一层次影响贸易变动的因素,但两个研究变量的变化对贸易变动的影响均具有不稳定性。最后,在研究结果的基础上提出了两点建议。     

贸易自由化对我国地区收入不平等的影响:来自中国的经验证据

文章基于协整的VAR模型从实证的角度研究了我国地区收入不平等与贸易自由化之间的长期均衡和短期动态关系。研究发现：（1）地区收入不平等、贸易自由化与经济增长之间存在长期均衡关系,贸易自由化和经济增长对于关注参数而言是弱外生变量;（2）贸易自由化在长期内减缓了我国地区收入不平等程度,但在短期内却导致了我国地区收入不平等程度的上升;（3）经济增长长期内趋于提高了我国地区收入不平等程度,但短期的影响方向不确定;（4）地区收入不平等是一个随机游走过程,不是一个含有结构突变的趋势平稳过程。     

Wage Effects of Employment Protection Legislation in Taiwan

This study investigates the effects of employment protection on wages. The implementation of employment protection legislation increases employers' firing costs and reduces labor turnover, and, therefore, results in lower wages. Our empirical results show that the implementation of Taiwan's leads to a reduction in wages, the effects of which varies with the stringency of the law's enforcement. In addition, employment protection can lead to a decrease in wage dispersion, implying the worsening of job matches.     

人力资本、R&D效率与地区差异

基于我国30个省域2002-2012年的面板数据,运用DEA-Tobit方法法实证检验了全国整体及三大地区人力资本存量及其结构对R&D效率的影响。结果显示,全国整体和东部的人力资本存量、高中及以上层次人力资本对R&D效率有显著促进作用,而中部、西部人力资本存量及各层次人力资本对R&D效率都没有显著促进作用。加强中西部地区人力资本的积累,提高其R&D效率,更好发挥创新对经济增长的支撑作用,是缩小与东部发达地区差异的关键。