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UM E-Theses Collection (澳門大學電子學位論文庫)

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Title

The effect of international trade on wages : a case study of China

English Abstract

Since the reform and opening-up policy was adopted in 1978, the performance of the Chinese economy has been remarkable. But the development across the eastern region, the central region, and the western region has shown imbalanced. Each region has its unique economic growth rate, international trade situation and an uneven wage level. Among all regions, the eastern region is the first one to be opened to international investors and enjoys the fastest development due to its excellent geographic location, while the western and central regions rank behind. The specific regional characteristics make China a good research object, since an interesting comparison can be made among different regions according to unique features of each region. This study investigates the main factors that may have impacts on the Chinese wages such as international trade, FDI, employment, educational attainment of workers and industry structure. Panel data of provinces and cities collected from 1988 to 2008 is employed in this thesis. Among all effecting factors, the international trade is emphasized and it is found that this trade factor has a significant effect on the real wage rate of all three regions. In the eastern and the western region, the export effect is larger than the import effect on wages, but the situation is just the opposite in the central region. FDI does not show obvious effects on wages from results of the national model and all the regional models. Besides, the regional employment and educational level are also found to have positive effects on the wage. Furthermore, the employment has the largest impact on the wage in the eastern region, and education has the dominant effect on central and western regional wages. The outdated industrial structure affects wages negatively, and drags down the wage of the central region the most. Based on the estimation results, some suggestions are provided in the last chapter.

Issue date

2012.

Author

Li, Xin Ran

Faculty

Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities

Department

Department of Economics

Degree

M.Soc.Sc.

Subject

Foreign trade and employment -- China

International trade

Wages -- China

Supervisor

Chang Hsiao-Chuan

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TOC & Abstract

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Location
1/F Zone C
Library URL
991000422949706306