Earnings differentials between the public and private sectors in China: Exploring changes for urban local residents in the 2000s

Sylvie Démurger, Shi Li () and Juan Yang ()

China Economic Review, 2012, vol. 23, issue 1, 138-153

Abstract: This paper analyzes the changes in public–private sector earnings differentials for local residents in urban China between 2002 and 2007. We find that earnings gaps across ownership sectors decreased during this period and that the convergence trend has been in favor of the private and semi-public sectors as opposed to the public sector. This trend is in sharp contrast to what occurred at the turn of the 21st century when employees in the government and state-owned enterprises were found to enjoy a privileged situation. Differences in endowments are found to play a growing role in explaining earnings differentials. However, although it is becoming less of an issue, segmentation across ownership remains important, especially for high-wage earners.

Keywords: Labor market; Earnings differentials; Segmentation; Enterprise ownership; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 J42 O53 P23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (55)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X11000873
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Earnings Differentials between the Public and Private Sectors in China: Exploring Changes for Urban Local Residents in the 2000s (2012)
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:eee:chieco:v:23:y:2012:i:1:p:138-153

DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2011.08.007

Access Statistics for this article

China Economic Review is currently edited by B.M. Fleisher, K. X. D. Huang, M.E. Lovely, Y. Wen, X. Zhang and X. Zhu

More articles in China Economic Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().