Post-industrial Economic Restructuring and Wage Inequality in Urban China, 2003-2015: A Sectoral Perspective

YANG Fiona Fan; HU Fox Zhiyong; WANG Yuhua

doi:10.1007/s11769-020-1125-0

Post-industrial Economic Restructuring and Wage Inequality in Urban China, 2003-2015: A Sectoral Perspective

doi: 10.1007/s11769-020-1125-0

1. School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China;
2. Department of Asian and Policy Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China;
3. College of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China

基金项目:

Under the auspices of the Early Career Scheme of the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (No. 28200615), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2018A030313276)

详细信息

通讯作者:
HU Fox Zhiyong.E-mail:zyhu@eduhk.hk

Post-industrial Economic Restructuring and Wage Inequality in Urban China, 2003-2015: A Sectoral Perspective

1. School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China;
2. Department of Asian and Policy Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China;
3. College of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China

Funds:

摘要: Income inequality in urban China has attracted growing attention from China's urban researchers and policy makers. Whereas many studies have interrogated the pattern and process of the income gap in Chinese cities undergoing the institutional transformation from plan to market, relatively little is known about how such unequal distribution of income is related to China's ongoing structural transformation toward a post-industrial economy. Drawing on a decomposition methodology based on the Theil index, this study aimed to address this lacuna through an empirical investigation of China's urban wage inequality from a sectoral perspective. Our empirical study identified the low-wage manufacturing sector and the high-wage producer services sector as the two biggest contributors to urban wage inequality in China. Urban wage inequality within the producer services was found to be caused by the spatial concentration of a disproportionate number of high-paying jobs in a few developed, high-tier city-regions on the eastern coast. Our empirical findings have important implications for the formulation of policies to address the income inequality that plagues China's continuing urbanization.
- wage inequality /
- post-industrial economy /
- economic restructuring /
- producer service /
- urban China
Abstract: Income inequality in urban China has attracted growing attention from China's urban researchers and policy makers. Whereas many studies have interrogated the pattern and process of the income gap in Chinese cities undergoing the institutional transformation from plan to market, relatively little is known about how such unequal distribution of income is related to China's ongoing structural transformation toward a post-industrial economy. Drawing on a decomposition methodology based on the Theil index, this study aimed to address this lacuna through an empirical investigation of China's urban wage inequality from a sectoral perspective. Our empirical study identified the low-wage manufacturing sector and the high-wage producer services sector as the two biggest contributors to urban wage inequality in China. Urban wage inequality within the producer services was found to be caused by the spatial concentration of a disproportionate number of high-paying jobs in a few developed, high-tier city-regions on the eastern coast. Our empirical findings have important implications for the formulation of policies to address the income inequality that plagues China's continuing urbanization.
- wage inequality /
- post-industrial economy /
- economic restructuring /
- producer service /
- urban China

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Post-industrial Economic Restructuring and Wage Inequality in Urban China, 2003-2015: A Sectoral Perspective

doi: 10.1007/s11769-020-1125-0

通讯作者:
HU Fox Zhiyong.E-mail:zyhu@eduhk.hk

Post-industrial Economic Restructuring and Wage Inequality in Urban China, 2003-2015: A Sectoral Perspective

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Post-industrial Economic Restructuring and Wage Inequality in Urban China, 2003-2015: A Sectoral Perspective

doi: 10.1007/s11769-020-1125-0

通讯作者: HU Fox Zhiyong.E-mail:zyhu@eduhk.hk

English Abstract

Post-industrial Economic Restructuring and Wage Inequality in Urban China, 2003-2015: A Sectoral Perspective

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Post-industrial Economic Restructuring and Wage Inequality in Urban China, 2003-2015: A Sectoral Perspective

doi: 10.1007/s11769-020-1125-0

通讯作者: HU Fox Zhiyong.E-mail:zyhu@eduhk.hk

Post-industrial Economic Restructuring and Wage Inequality in Urban China, 2003-2015: A Sectoral Perspective

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Post-industrial Economic Restructuring and Wage Inequality in Urban China, 2003-2015: A Sectoral Perspective

doi: 10.1007/s11769-020-1125-0

通讯作者: HU Fox Zhiyong.E-mail:zyhu@eduhk.hk

English Abstract

Post-industrial Economic Restructuring and Wage Inequality in Urban China, 2003-2015: A Sectoral Perspective

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目录

通讯作者:
HU Fox Zhiyong.E-mail:zyhu@eduhk.hk