China's Skill-Biased Imports

Hongbin Li (), Lei Li () and Hong Ma
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Hongbin Li: Stanford University
Lei Li: University of Göttingen

No 15423, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: China has witnessed rapid increases in the skill premium over the last few decades. In this paper, we study the short-run effect of capital goods imports on skill premium in China. The surge in capital goods imports, which embody advanced technology, can explain the rising demand for skills in China. We exploit regional variations in capital goods import exposure stemming from initial differences in import structure and instrument for the capital goods import growth using exchange rate movements. A city at the 75th percentile of the distribution of capital goods imports growth has a higher skill premium by 5 percentage points (0.38 standard deviation) over the one at the 25th percentile. To explore the underlying mechanism, we provide firm-level evidence and show that imported capital goods are skill-complementary.

Keywords: skill-biased technological change; imported capital goods; skill premium (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F16 J20 J31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2022-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-int and nep-lma
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Published - published in: China Economic Review, 2022, 74, 101809

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Related works:
Journal Article: China's skill-biased imports (2022)
Working Paper: China’s Skill-Biased Imports (2022)
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