 Do Chinese firms in Africa pay lower wages? A comparative analysis of manufacturing and construction firms in Angola and EthiopiaCarlos Oya and Florian Schaefer World Development, 2023, vol. 168, issue C Abstract: This paper analyses wage differences between Chinese and non-Chinese firms in Angola and Ethiopia. The growing engagement of Chinese firms in sub-Saharan Africa has generated debates about the working conditions offered to African workers. However, the evidence for many of the claims made about wages in Chinese firms operating in sub-Saharan Africa is unconvincing. In this paper the authors identify problems with the existing literature and provide new comparative evidence on wages in Chinese, other foreign and domestic firms in Angola and Ethiopia. Drawing on over 1,400 worker-level interviews the authors find that Chinese firms do not consistently pay less than comparable firms. Using a multi-scalar labour regime framework the authors show that a combination individual worker characteristics, sector specificities, and firm attributes are necessary to explain variations in wages in both countries. The national origin of firms by itself cannot explain the observed differences in wages. Keywords: Wages; Labour regimes; Manufacturing; Construction; China; Angola; Ethiopia (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:168:y:2023:i:c:s0305750x23000840 DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106266 Access Statistics for this article World Development is currently edited by O. T. Coomes More articles in World Development from Elsevier |
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