The Wage Premium of Communist Party Membership: Evidence from China

Plamen Nikolov, Hongjian Wang and Kevin Acker

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: Social status and political connections could confer large economic benefits to an individual. Previous studies focused on China examine the relationship between Communist party membership and earnings and find a positive correlation. However, this correlation may be partly or totally spurious, thereby generating upwards-biased estimates of the importance of political party membership. Using data from three surveys spanning more than three decades, we estimate the causal effect of Chinese party membership on monthly earnings in in China. We find that, on average, membership in the Communist party of China increases monthly earnings and we find evidence that the wage premium has grown in recent years. We explore for potential mechanisms and we find suggestive evidence that improvements in one's social network, acquisition of job-related qualifications and improvement in one's social rank and life satisfaction likely play an important role. (JEL D31, J31, P2)

Date: 2020-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-soc and nep-tra
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Wage premium of Communist Party membership: Evidence from China (2020)
Working Paper: The Wage Premium of Communist Party Membership: Evidence from China (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:arx:papers:2007.13549

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