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| Import and Employees' Income: A Case Study of Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises |
| XU Jiayun
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APEC Study Center, Nankai University;
Institute for Contemporary China Studies, Tsinghua University |
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Abstract In recent years, expanding import trade has become a new trade strategy in China. The outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan in 2016 clearly defines the strategic importance of expanding the import scale, optimizing import structures, and improving import quality. The expansion of imports can improve people's well-being. The active expansion of imports can increase supplies more effectively and directly to better meet people's growing needs for a better life. Moreover, the growth of residents' incomes and the reduction of the income gap are the premise and foundation for realizing the welfare effect of imports. In this context, I seek to understand the effects of import trade on labor income. In China, the study of the effects of import on employees' wages is related not only to the domestic income distribution system, but also to the competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises and the sustainable development of the Chinese economy. In other words, it is important to study the impact of import trade on the labor market in China.
In the current severe situation characterized by the rapid development of China's import trade, rising labor costs, and declining labor income, it is imperative to focus on the impact of import trade on the wages and salaries of enterprise employees to formulate industrial policies and change the mode of import trade in the future. In addition, it is important to determine the coordinated implementation of policies related to import trade and talent given the increasing pressure of labor costs. However, so far, the ways in which import trade affects the average wages of employees has not attracted adequate attention from scholars at home and abroad, with few studies directly discussing the relationship between import trade and the average wages of employees. In this light, I first comb the relevant mechanisms by which import trade affects enterprise income. Then, I construct a measurement model using matching data from China's industrial enterprise database and customs database for the 2000-2013 period to comprehensively and systematically investigate the impact of imports on the average wage level and the share of labor income in enterprises. Based on this benchmark analysis, I further use the mediating effect model to test the mechanism of the effect of imports on the average wage level. Then, I use the difference-in-differences method and instrument variables to confirm the robustness of the above conclusions.
The results show that at first, imports significantly increase employees' average wages, but the positive wage spillover effect is not persistent. Second, the mediating effect test shows that the “competition effect” and “incentive effect” are important channels through which imports affect the average wage in enterprises. In addition, these effects are significantly different across firms with different characteristics, including different ownership structures and different export decisions. Moreover, the magnitude of these effects differs by the type of product imported and the source of importation. Finally, although imports significantly increase the average wages of enterprise employees, they significantly reduce the share of labor income in enterprises. Specifically, imports not only increase the average wages of enterprise employees, but also induce a greater increase in labor productivity, thus completely offsetting the “wage increase” effect.
The main contributions of this study are as follows: (1) this study is different from most studies on the impact of trade liberalization on the income of enterprise employees. This study directly discusses the economic effects of imports from the perspectives of wage level and share of labor income, divides it from the perspective of capital goods and intermediate goods, and enriches the literature on the evaluation of the trade welfare effect. In addition, it systematically and comprehensively investigates the effects of imports on the wage level and share of labor income of enterprise employees to provide a basis for understanding the import activities of Chinese enterprises. (2) This study not only examines the current impact of import trade on the wages and salaries of enterprise employees, but also explores the dynamic impact of imports on the wages and salaries of enterprise employees. (3) Considering the heterogeneity of enterprises in reality, this study investigates the effects of imports on the wages and salaries of employees of manufacturing enterprises with different characteristics and compares and analyzes the effects of different types of imports.
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Received: 25 December 2018
Published: 02 November 2020
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