Globalization and wage inequality: Evidence from urban China

Jun Han (), Runjuan Liu () and Junsen Zhang

Journal of International Economics, 2012, vol. 87, issue 2, 288-297

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of globalization on wage inequality using Chinese Urban Household Survey data from 1988 to 2008. Exploring two trade liberalization shocks, Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour in 1992 and China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, we analyze whether regions more exposed to globalization experienced larger changes in wage inequality than less-exposed regions. Contrary to the predictions of the Heckscher–Ohlin model, we find that the WTO accession was significantly associated with rising wage inequality. We further show that both trade liberalizations contributed to within-region inequality by raising the returns to education (the returns to high school after 1992 and the returns to college after 2001).

Keywords: Wage inequality; Skill premium; Globalization; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F16 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (109)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022199611001693
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:inecon:v:87:y:2012:i:2:p:288-297

DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2011.12.006

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Economics is currently edited by Gourinchas, Pierre-Olivier and Rodríguez-Clare, Andrés

More articles in Journal of International Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().