Skill differentials, return to schooling, and market segmentation in a transition economy: the case of Mainland China

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fleisher, BM; Wang, XJ
• 署名单位: University System of Ohio; Ohio State University; University of Hawaii System
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2002.12.002
• 发表日期: 2004
• 页码: 315-328
• 关键词: wages; return to schooling; market segmentation; PRODUCTIVITY; transition economies; Chinese economy

摘要

A body of existing research attributes evident underpayment of workers and low private returns to schooling in China through the mid-1990s to the persistence of labor-market monopsony. We find that rural enterprises overpay production workers relative to a monopsony profit-maximizing benchmark, while there is extreme underpayment of skilled workers relative to the monopsony profit-maximizing amount. This relatively large exploitation of skilled workers explains, in a proximate sense, low private returns to schooling. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.