Trade liberalization and the gender employment gap in China

This paper investigates the impact of import liberalization induced labor demand shocks on male and female employment in China. Combining data from population and firm census waves over the period of 1990 to 2005, we relate prefecture-level employment by gender to the exposure to tariff reductions o...

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Main Authors: Wang, Feicheng, Kis-Katos, Krisztina, Zhou, Minghai
Format: Monograph
Language:English
Published: The University of Nottingham Ningbo China 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/61369/
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author Wang, Feicheng
Kis-Katos, Krisztina
Zhou, Minghai
author_facet Wang, Feicheng
Kis-Katos, Krisztina
Zhou, Minghai
author_sort Wang, Feicheng
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper investigates the impact of import liberalization induced labor demand shocks on male and female employment in China. Combining data from population and firm census waves over the period of 1990 to 2005, we relate prefecture-level employment by gender to the exposure to tariff reductions on locally imported products. Our empirical results show that increasing import competition has kept more females in the workforce, reducing an otherwise growing gender employment gap. These dynamics were present both in the local economies as a whole and among formal private industrial firms. Examining channels through which tariff reductions differentially affected males and females, we find that trade induced competitive pressures contributed to a general expansion of female intensive industries, shifts in sectoral gender segregation, reductions in gender discrimination in the labor market, technological upgrading through computerization and general income growth.
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language English
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publishDate 2020
publisher The University of Nottingham Ningbo China
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spelling nottingham-613692020-08-28T03:29:29Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/61369/ Trade liberalization and the gender employment gap in China Wang, Feicheng Kis-Katos, Krisztina Zhou, Minghai This paper investigates the impact of import liberalization induced labor demand shocks on male and female employment in China. Combining data from population and firm census waves over the period of 1990 to 2005, we relate prefecture-level employment by gender to the exposure to tariff reductions on locally imported products. Our empirical results show that increasing import competition has kept more females in the workforce, reducing an otherwise growing gender employment gap. These dynamics were present both in the local economies as a whole and among formal private industrial firms. Examining channels through which tariff reductions differentially affected males and females, we find that trade induced competitive pressures contributed to a general expansion of female intensive industries, shifts in sectoral gender segregation, reductions in gender discrimination in the labor market, technological upgrading through computerization and general income growth. The University of Nottingham Ningbo China 2020-08-12 Monograph NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/61369/1/minghai.pdf Wang, Feicheng, Kis-Katos, Krisztina and Zhou, Minghai (2020) Trade liberalization and the gender employment gap in China. Working Paper. The University of Nottingham Ningbo China. (Unpublished) Trade liberalization; Import competition; Gender employment gap; China
spellingShingle Trade liberalization; Import competition; Gender employment gap; China
Wang, Feicheng
Kis-Katos, Krisztina
Zhou, Minghai
Trade liberalization and the gender employment gap in China
title Trade liberalization and the gender employment gap in China
title_full Trade liberalization and the gender employment gap in China
title_fullStr Trade liberalization and the gender employment gap in China
title_full_unstemmed Trade liberalization and the gender employment gap in China
title_short Trade liberalization and the gender employment gap in China
title_sort trade liberalization and the gender employment gap in china
topic Trade liberalization; Import competition; Gender employment gap; China
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/61369/