IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/reorpe/v47y2015i3p446-459.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are Chinese Workers Paid the Correct Wages? Measuring Wage Underpayment in the Chinese Industrial Sector, 2005-2010

Author

Listed:
  • Zhun Xu
  • Ying Chen
  • Minqi Li

Abstract

This paper examines the labor compensations of the Chinese industrial sector for the period 2005-2010. We find that both the state owned enterprises and the non-domestic enterprises pay more than the living wage. But the domestic private enterprises pay substantially less than the living wage. We also find that all types of Chinese industrial enterprises pay the workers with wages that are substantially less than their marginal product of labor.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhun Xu & Ying Chen & Minqi Li, 2015. "Are Chinese Workers Paid the Correct Wages? Measuring Wage Underpayment in the Chinese Industrial Sector, 2005-2010," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 47(3), pages 446-459, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:47:y:2015:i:3:p:446-459
    DOI: 10.1177/0486613414542780
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613414542780
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0486613414542780?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dennis Tao Yang & Hao Zhou, 1999. "Rural-urban disparity and sectoral labour allocation in China," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 105-133.
    2. N. Gregory Mankiw & David Romer & David N. Weil, 1992. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 407-437.
    3. Richard ANKER, 2006. "Living wages around the world: A new methodology and internationally comparable estimates," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 145(4), pages 309-338, December.
    4. Bloom, David E. & Canning, David & Sevilla, Jaypee, 2004. "The Effect of Health on Economic Growth: A Production Function Approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 1-13, January.
    5. Gregory C. Chow, 1993. "Capital Formation and Economic Growth in China," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(3), pages 809-842.
    6. Louis Kuijs & Tao Wang, 2006. "China's Pattern of Growth: Moving to Sustainability and Reducing Inequality," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cheng, Zhiming, 2022. "Communist Party branch and labour rights: Evidence from Chinese entrepreneurs," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    2. Muriel Périsse & Clément Séhier, 2019. "Analysing wages and labour institutions in China: An unfinished transition," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 30(3), pages 400-421, September.
    3. Chung-Khain Wye & Elya Nabila Abdul Bahri, 2021. "How does employment respond to minimum wage adjustment in China?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 32(1), pages 90-114, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Murach, Michael & Wagner, Helmut & Kim, Jungsuk & Park, Donghyun, 2022. "Trajectories to high income: Comparing the growth dynamics in China, South Korea, and Japan with cointegrated VAR models," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 492-511.
    2. Akram, Naeem, 2009. "Short run and long run dynamics of impact of health status on economic growth Evidence from Pakistan," MPRA Paper 15454, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Liu, Tung & Li, Kui-Wai, 2006. "Disparity in factor contributions between coastal and inner provinces in post-reform China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 449-470.
    4. Burhan, Nik Ahmad Sufian & Mohamad, Mohd Rosli & Kurniawan, Yohan & Sidek, Abdul Halim, 2014. "National Intelligence, Basic Human Needs, and Their Effect on Economic Growth," MPRA Paper 77267, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Sabrina Auci & Laura Castellucci & Manuela Coromaldi, 2021. "How does public spending affect technical efficiency? Some evidence from 15 European countries," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 108-130, January.
    6. Peter Lorentzen & John McMillan & Romain Wacziarg, 2008. "Death and development," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 81-124, June.
    7. Åsa Johansson, 2016. "Public Finance, Economic Growth and Inequality: A Survey of the Evidence," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1346, OECD Publishing.
    8. Rajesh Sharma, 2018. "Health and economic growth: Evidence from dynamic panel data of 143 years," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(10), pages 1-20, October.
    9. Bloom, David E. & Canning, David & Kotschy, Rainer & Prettner, Klaus & Schünemann, Johannes, 2024. "Health and economic growth: Reconciling the micro and macro evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    10. Kwan, Fung & Zhang, Yang & Zhuo, Shuaihe, 2018. "Labour reallocation, productivity growth and dualism: The case of China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 198-210.
    11. Daren, Conrad, 2007. "Education and Economic Growth: Is There a Link?," MPRA Paper 18176, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2009.
    12. Indunil De Silva & Sudarno Sumarto, 2015. "Dynamics Of Growth, Poverty And Human Capital: Evidence From Indonesian Sub-National Data," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 40(2), pages 1-33, June.
    13. Juste Som¨¦ & Selsah Pasali & Martin Kaboine, 2019. "Exploring the Impact of Healthcare on Economic Growth in Africa," Applied Economics and Finance, Redfame publishing, vol. 6(3), pages 45-57, May.
    14. David N. Weil, 2005. "Accounting for the Effect of Health on Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 11455, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Serge Mandiefe Piabuo & Julius Chupezi Tieguhong, 2017. "Health expenditure and economic growth - a review of the literature and an analysis between the economic community for central African states (CEMAC) and selected African countries," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    16. Gregory C. Chow, 2004. "Economic Reform and Growth in China," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 5(1), pages 127-152, May.
    17. Bloom, David E. & Cafiero-Fonseca, Elizabeth T. & McGovern, Mark E. & Prettner, Klaus & Stanciole, Anderson & Weiss, Jonathan & Bakkila, Samuel & Rosenberg, Larry, 2014. "The macroeconomic impact of non-communicable diseases in China and India: Estimates, projections, and comparisons," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 4(C), pages 100-111.
    18. Syeda Anam Fatima Rizvi, 2019. "Health Expenditures, Institutional Quality and Economic Growth," Post-Print hal-03341703, HAL.
    19. Tran, Nguyen Van & Alauddin, Mohammad & Tran, Quyet Van, 2019. "Labour quality and benefits reaped from global economic integration: An application of dynamic panel SGMM estimators," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 92-106.
    20. Zhixin Zeng & Xiaojun Wang, 2021. "Effects of Domestic Tourism on Urban-Rural Income Inequality: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-21, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    living wage; China; marginal product of labor;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:47:y:2015:i:3:p:446-459. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.urpe.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.