Wage premium in the exporting sector: evidence from manufacturing firms in China

Fu, Dahai and Wu, Yanrui (2011): Wage premium in the exporting sector: evidence from manufacturing firms in China.

Abstract

This paper investigates whether exporting firms pay average higher wages than non-exporting firms by analyzing a large sample of Chinese manufacturing firms in 2004. Through rigorous exercises involving robust regressions, quantile regressions and nonparametric matching estimators, we find that the wage premium of exporting activities is not a prevailing phenomenon in China. It is unevenly distributed among firms with different ownerships, export-orientations and locations. Overall, exporters located in coastal regions but Guangdong province are more likely to pay higher average wages than nonexporters, while those producing in Guangdong offer a lower pay.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Exporters, Wage premium, Manufacturing, China
• Subjects: F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F16 - Trade and Labor Market Interactions; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs > J31 - Wage Level and Structure ; Wage Differentials; L - Industrial Organization > L6 - Industry Studies: Manufacturing

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