Margaret Maurer-Fazio

Earnings and education in China's transition to a market economy Survey evidence from 1989 and 1992

Abstract Analyses of returns to educational investments in China, based on 1981, 1985, and 1986 data, have yielded surprisingly low and sometimes negative rates. Given the extent of wage compression in prereform China, it is expected that human capital accumulation be increasingly recognized and rewarded as the Chinese economic reforms progress and market forces permeate the work place. Econometric analysis of newly available data, gathered in 1989 and 1992, reveals that returns to education for new labor force entrants, for workers who have recently obtained their current positions, for young people, for workers in recently established firms, and for collective, joint-venture, and private-sector workers are in the range expected of East Asian market economies with well-functioning labor markets.

Childcare, Eldercare, and Labor Force Participation of Married Women in Urban China: 1982-2000

We employ Chinese population census data to consider married, urban womens labor force participation decisions in the context of their families. We find that the presence in the household of a parent, parent-in-law, or person aged 75 or older increases prime-age womens likelihood of participating in market work. The presence of preschool-aged children decreases it. The negative effect on womens labor force participation of having young children in the household is substantially larger for married, rural-to-urban migrants than for their nonmigrant counterparts. Similarly, the positive effect of coresidence with elders is larger for rural-to-urban migrant women than for nonmigrants.

Effects of Marriage, Education and Occupation on the Female/Male Wage Gap in China

In the present study the way in which the gender wage gap in urban China differs according to marital status, education and occupation, is examined. Married Chinese women experience much larger absolute gender wage gaps than their unmarried counterparts. The proportion of the gender wage gap unexplained by differences in the levels of productive characteristics is also higher for married women than single women. Gender wage gaps are smaller for more educated women. These findings suggest that occupational segregation is not as important a factor as industrial segregation in accounting for the gender wage gap in Chinas urban labour markets.

Differential Rewards to, and Contributions of, Education in Urban China's Segmented Labor Markets

Using worker data from a 1999-2000 urban enterprise survey, we examine the effects of education on the current earnings of continuously employed urban workers, migrants and laid off but subsequently re-employed workers. We also decompose the earnings differentials between each of these groups of workers and then assess the contribution of education to explanations of the differentials. The empirical results demonstrate that returns to education increase with marketization and competition in the workplace. We also find educational attainment to be an important explanator of the earnings differentials between institutionally differentiated groups of workers in Chinas urban labor markets. Copyright 2004 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

An Ocean formed from one hundred rivers: the effects of ethnicity, gender, marriage, and location on labor force participation in urban China

Abstract This paper analyzes changes in labor force participation rates over time for gender- and ethnicity-differentiated groups in urban China. From 1990 to 2000, urban labor force participation rates fell substantially with womens rates declining more rapidly than mens and minority womens declining more rapidly than Han womens. Womens labor force participation is determined by a complex interaction of often gendered economic, demographic, and cultural factors that vary considerably by ethnic group. This analysis employs probit regression techniques to census data to explore possible explanations for the observed changes. This paper focuses on five of Chinas larger ethnic groups: the Han, Hui, Korean, Uygur, and Zhuang. Although many of the findings differ by ethnic group, for married women there is evidence of a return to more traditional expectations about gendered household roles that is consistent across groups. The research techniques also uncover evidence of discrimination against men of certain ethnic groups.

Ethnic discrimination in China's internet job board labor market

AbstractWe conduct a large-scale field experiment to investigate how Chinese firms respond to Internet job board applications from ethnic minority and Han applicants. We signal ethnicity by using names that are typically Han Chinese and distinctively Mongolian, Tibetan, and Uighur. We find significant differences in callback rates by ethnicity. These differences vary systematically across ethnic groups. Not all firms discriminate—approximately half treat all candidates equally. State-owned firms are much less likely than others to discriminate in favor of Han candidates and both state- and foreign-owned firms are significantly more likely to treat candidates equally than do privately owned firms.JEL CodesJ71, J23, J15, O52, P25

A comparison and decomposition of reform‐era labor force participation rates of China's ethnic minorities and Han majority

This paper examines differences in Chinas ethnic majority and minority patterns of labor force participation and decomposes these differences into treatment and endowment effects using the technique developed by Borooah and Iyer (2005). Population census data are used to estimate gender-separated urban labor force participation rates (lfpr) using logit regressions which control for educational attainment, marital status, pre-school and school-age children, household size, age, and measures of local economic conditions. We focus on six minority groups (Hui, Koreans, Manchu, Mongolians, Uygurs, and Zhuang) and the majority Han. We find sizable differences between the lfpr of urban women of particular ethnic groups and the majority Han. Mens lfpr are very high and exhibit little difference between Han and ethnic minorities. For almost all pair-wise comparisons between Han and minority women, we find that differences in coefficients account for more than 100% of the Han-ethnic difference in labor force participation. Differences in endowments often have substantial effects in reducing this positive Han margin in labor force participation. Roughly speaking, treatment of womens characteristics, whether in the market or socially, tend to increase the Han advantage in labor force participation. The levels of these characteristics on average tend to reduce this Han advantage.

In Books One Finds a House of Gold: education and labor market outcomes in urban China

Data from a 1999–2000 survey of urban workers are employed here to examine the role of education and other factors in both preventing lay-offs and obtaining re-employment. The data are also used to compare the effect of education on the earnings of re-employed workers to that of workers who have never been laid off. The empirical results demonstrate that by the late 1990s education had become a key determinant of successful labor market outcomes. The more education a worker had, the less likely he or she was to be laid off. Similarly, the more education a worker had, the better his or her chances of finding new employment once laid off. Interestingly, the education of workers who experienced a lay-off and then found new employment was rewarded more, in terms of incremental earnings for each additional year of schooling, than that of continuously employed workers.

A Comparison of Reform-Era Labor Force Participation Rates of China's Ethnic Minorities and Han Majority

Previous research suggests that minorities are not faring well in China???s transition???both income and occupational attainment gaps are widening. We are particularly interested in whether the differences in majority and minority economic outcomes are the result of ethnicity per se, or whether they are artifacts of local economic conditions. In this paper, we employ data from the three most recent population censuses of China to explore differences in the labor force participation rates of a number of China???s important ethnic groups. We estimate urban labor force participation rates using probit regressions controlling for sex, marital status, educational attainment, age, ethnicity, and location. We also account for the geographic concentration of particular ethnic minorities and compare the participation rates of different ethnic groups within geographic regions that represent the areas of principal residence for each minority. We concentrate on seven important minority groups: Hui, Koreans, Manchu, Mongolians, Uygurs, Yi and Zhuang. We find that location has limited explanatory power in explaining differences in the probability of labor force participation between these important Chinese ethnic minorities and the majority Han.

The Contemporary Ethnic Minority in China: An Introduction

This article introduces the historical context behind the practice of fixed ethnic identification currently employed in the People’s Republic of China. Notwithstanding the major problems to clearly delineate the boundaries of many ethnic groups in the Chinese context, the article contends there was a strong pragmatism for officially classifying ethnic minority groups rather than adopting the self-identification method used in many Western nations. Finally, the article poses the query whether ethnic minority status continues to hold a meaningful category of analysis in contemporary China.