cite: Pi2016
author: Pi, J., & Zhang, P.
year: 2016
title: "Hukou system reforms and skilled-unskilled wage inequality in China"
publisher: China Economic Review
uri: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2016.08.009
pubtype: article
discipline: economics

country: China
period: 1988-2013
maxlength: 12
targeting: implicit
group: urban workers
data: national administrative Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) 2010-13

design: simulation
method: general equilibrium model
sample:
unit: household
representativeness: subnational, urban
causal: 0 # 0 correlation / 1 causal

theory:
limitations: generalizability restricted due to specific institutional contexts of Chinese hukou systems; no disaggregation to private/public sector; job search not part of model
observation:
  - intervention: social security; education (access)
    institutional: 1
    structural: 1
    agency: 0
    inequality: income; migration; ethnicity
    type: 1 # 0 vertical / 1 horizontal
    indicator: 1 # 0 absolute / 1 relative
    measures: decile ratios (90th to 10th)
    findings: increased access to social security for urban migrants decreases wage inequality between skilled-unskilled urban workers if skilled sector is more capital intensive than unskilled sector
    channels:
    direction: -1 # -1 neg / 0 none / 1 pos
    significance: # 0 nsg / 1 msg / 2 sg

notes:
annotation: |
  A study on the impacts of allowing increased access to social welfare provisions and education to urban migrants in China, looking at the effects on wage inequality between skilled and unskilled sectors and workers.
  It uses skilled-unskilled inequality instead of rural-urban inequalities since the real wages of the rural sector are already much lower in China, making comparisons along the 90th to 10th decile ratios more difficult.
  The study finds that reforms to increase access to social security and education for urban migrants decreases wage inequality between the sectors if the skilled sector is more capital intensive than the unskilled sector, though it makes no specific identification of individual channels.
  There are several limitations to the study such as no disaggregation between the private and the (very important for the Chinese economy) public sector, job searching not being part of the model, and, most importantly, a severely restricted generalizability due to the reform characteristics being strongly bound to the institutional contexts of Chinese *hukou* systems.