East Asia Workshop: Politics, Economy and Society Presents

 

“Evolution of the Interindustry Wage Structure in China Since the 1980’s”

 

Belton Fleisher

Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics

Ohio State University

 

4:30-6pm, Tuesday

February 24, 2015

Pick Lounge, 5828 South University Ave.

 

Abstract

Industry mean wages in China have exhibited sharply increased dispersion since the early1990s. Researchers have attributed this rising inequality within the industrial wage structure (IWS) to (1) increasingly competitive labor markets leading to better matches between worker pay, worker skills, and employer demands; or (2) residual government control in some industrial sectors that has generated high wages through monopoly rent sharing. We argue that the rise in China’s industrial wage dispersion is primarily attributable to increasingly competitive labor markets which have led to greater returns to schooling and to efficient redistribution of workers across major industry groups. We cannot reject the null hypothesis that the level or changes in government monopoly power has had negligible impact on China’s rising industrial wage dispersion.

 

Workshop website: http://cas.uchicago.edu/workshops/eastasia/

Student coordinator: Wen Xie (wxie@uchicago.edu)

Faculty sponsors: Dali Yang, Dingxin Zhao and Zheng Michael Song

 

This presentation is sponsored by the Council on Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences and Center for East Asian Studies. Persons with disabilities who believe they may need assistance please contact the student coordinator in advance.