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What explains the recent increase of gender wage gap in China?

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: This paper investigates the changes of gender wage gap in urban and rural areas and examines the effect of wage structure and unobserved characteristics on the gap by using the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) survey in 2013 and 2018. We document a significant increase of the gender wage gap in both areas as well as among rural‐to‐urban migrants. By applying Katz and Murphy's supply‐demand framework, we find that the demand has shifted toward younger, more educated workers, and the demand for male workers is higher than that for female workers during the time. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition of gender wage gap suggests that factors, such as occupation, parenthood status, and industry, have contributed to the expansion of wage gap. Furthermore, the Juhn–Murphy–Pierce decomposition of the change in gender wage gap implies that the expansion is owing to rising discrimination against females and gender‐specific factors such as observed and unobserved characteristics that have performed unfavorably for females.

Source: Bulletin of Economic Research

DOI: 10.1111/boer.12467

Author: Lusi Liao

Institution: Guangdong Academy of Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Labor market dynamics and wage inequality

Subfield: Economics and Econometrics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Decent work and economic growth, Gender equality

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: Guangdong Academy of Sciences