Explaining Rising Returns to Education in Urban China in the 1990s

Xuejun Liu, Albert Park and Yaohui Zhao
Additional contact information
Xuejun Liu: China Center for Economic Research

Trade Working Papers from East Asian Bureau of Economic Research

Abstract: Although theory predicts that international trade will decrease the relative demand for skilled workers in relatively skill-deficit countries, in recent decades many developing countries have experienced rising wage premiums for skilled workers. We examines this puzzle by quantifying the relative importance of different supply and demand factors in explaining the rapid increase in the returns to education experienced by China during the 1990s. Analyzing Chinese urban household survey and census data for six provinces, we find that although changes in the structure of demand did reduce the demand for skilled workers, consistent with trade theory, the magnitude of the effect was modest and more than offset by institutional reforms and technological changes that increased the relative demand for skill.

Keywords: international trade; education; China; urban household survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.eaber.org/node/22720 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 301 [REDIRECT LOOP] Moved Permanently (http://www.eaber.org/node/22720 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22720 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22720 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22720 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22720 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22720 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22720 [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.eaber.org/node/22720)

Related works:
Working Paper: Explaining Rising Returns to Education in Urban China in the 1990s (2010)
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:eab:tradew:22720

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Trade Working Papers from East Asian Bureau of Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Shiro Armstrong ().