The Industrial Reserve Army and Wage Setting in China

Esther Majerowicz
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Esther Majerowicz: Department of Economics of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN)

Bulletin of Political Economy, 2022, vol. 16, issue 1, 21-56

Abstract: We propose a Marxist interpretation of wage setting in post-reform China and an account of the formation of its industrial reserve army (IRA). We discuss the party-state shifting strategies toward depeasantization and the social forms under which laborers were absorbed in nonagricultural activities. Far from experiencing the end of unlimited supplies of labor, China has built a massive IRA that has nonetheless the wage rate formation and the evolution of class struggle and state policies responding to it, which together explain the broad patterns of wage behavior in China.

Keywords: China; proletarianization; industrial reserve army; wage determination; depeasantization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B51 J21 J31 P30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:awu:journl:v:16:y:2022:i:1:p:21-56

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