MARKET ACCESS AND INDIVIDUAL WAGES: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hering, Laura; Poncet, Sandra
• 署名单位: heSam Universite; Universite Pantheon-Sorbonne; Paris School of Economics
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest.2009.11418
• 发表日期: 2010-02
• 页码: 145-159
• 关键词: product differentiation; economic-geography; INEQUALITY; returns; INVESTMENT; variables; education; poverty; pattern

摘要

We consider the effect of geography on wages using individual data from 56 Chinese cities. We present a simple new economic geography model that links wages to individual characteristics and market access. The latter is calculated as a transport cost weighted sum of surrounding locations' market capacity. After controlling for individual skills and local factor endowments, we find that a significant fraction of the interindividual differences in returns to labor can be explained by the geography of market access. We further find greater wage sensitivity to market access for highly skilled workers and for workers in private and, particularly, foreign-owned firms.