Trade liberalization and the gender employment gap in China

Feicheng Wang, Krisztina Kis-Katos and Minghai Zhou ()

No 399, University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics from University of Goettingen, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of import liberalization induced labor demand shocks on male and female employment in China. Combining data from population and firm census waves over the period of 1990 to 2005, we relate prefecture-level employment by gender to the exposure to tariff reductions on locally imported products. Our empirical results show that increasing import competition has kept more females in the workforce, reducing an otherwise growing gender employment gap. These dynamics were present both in the local economies as a whole and among formal private industrial firms. Examining channels through which tariff reductions differentially affected males and females, we find that trade induced competitive pressures contributed to a general expansion of female intensive industries, shifts in sectoral gender segregation, reductions in gender discrimination in the labor market, technological upgrading through computerization and general income growth.

Keywords: Trade liberalization; Import competition; Gender employment gap; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F14 F16 F66 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-gen, nep-int and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Working Paper: Trade Liberalization and the Gender Employment Gap in China (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:cegedp:399

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