THE IMPACT OF THE BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE ON FIRMS’ EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE AND WAGE — EVIDENCE FROM CHINA’S PUBLIC LISTED FIRMS

Bo Chen and Yue Chen ()
Additional contact information
Bo Chen: School of Economics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Rd., Wuhan, Hubei 430074, P. R. China
Yue Chen: School of Economics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Rd., Wuhan, Hubei 430074, P. R. China

The Singapore Economic Review (SER), 2021, vol. 66, issue 04, 1055-1072

Abstract: In this paper, we use the Belt and Road Initiative (B&R) as a semi-natural experiment and apply a difference-in-difference analysis together with the propensity score matching approach to estimate the impact of the B&R on China’s A-Share listed firms with outbound FDI to the B&R countries during 2011–2017. We find that China’s firms investing in B&R countries, compared to those investing elsewhere in the world, tend to reduce their total employment, increase the share of skilled labor, and increase wages. Various tests show that the key results of B&R impacts remain robust. We also find that the adjustment after investing in B&R countries is mainly found in non-SOEs, the firms in key provinces that enjoy pilot B&R policies. Both vertical and horizontal FDI firms are found to significantly adjust their employment, skill structure, and wage payment, with the former as more responsive.

Keywords: Belt and road initiative; difference-in-difference; employment; wage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0217590820490028
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:serxxx:v:66:y:2021:i:04:n:s0217590820490028

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0217590820490028

Access Statistics for this article

The Singapore Economic Review (SER) is currently edited by Euston Quah

More articles in The Singapore Economic Review (SER) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().