Labor market formalization and local-migrant wage gap in China: Evidence from 2008 Labor Contract Law

IF 3.2 2区社会学 Q1 SOCIOLOGY

Social Science Research Pub Date : 2025-05-23 DOI:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2025.103211

Yiyue Huangfu

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The Chinese labor market had seen changing levels of labor market informality in the past two decades. Rural migrant workers are more likely to be in the informal labor force and earn lower wages. This study bridges the scholarship that separately consider the roles of migration and informal employment in social stratification in China. Drawing on the relational inequality framework, this paper investigates the effects of labor market formalization on the local-migrant wage gap in 2006–2015. I first document the impact of formal worker status on local-migrant wage gap throughout years. I then use two-way fixed effect event analysis to test whether the 2008 Labor Contract Law --- a specific public policy aimed at providing labor protection --- reduced migrants’ disadvantages in earnings. I combine survey data with administrative records to capture place- and time-specific variation in policy implementation. During the years of labor market formalization, having a labor contract started playing a smaller role in local-migrant wage gap. The major national policy to provide labor protection benefited local workers more than it did for migrant workers. Consequently, the implementation of the law enlarged local-migrant wage gap in the short run. The findings shed light on the relationship between labor market regulation and economic inequality.

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中国劳动力市场正规化与本地农民工工资差距：来自2008年《劳动合同法》的证据

在过去的二十年里，中国劳动力市场的非正式性水平发生了变化。农民工更有可能成为非正规劳动力，工资也更低。本研究将分别考虑移民和非正式就业在中国社会分层中的作用的学术研究联系起来。本文利用关系不平等框架，考察了2006-2015年劳动力市场正规化对本地农民工工资差距的影响。我首先记录了多年来正式工人身份对本地移民工资差距的影响。然后，我使用双向固定效应事件分析来检验2008年《劳动合同法》——一项旨在提供劳动保护的具体公共政策——是否减少了农民工在收入方面的劣势。我将调查数据与行政记录结合起来，以捕捉政策执行中特定地点和特定时间的变化。在劳动力市场正规化的这些年里，拥有劳动合同在本地移民工资差距中的作用开始变小。提供劳动保护的主要国家政策对当地工人的好处大于对外来工人的好处。因此，该法律的实施在短期内扩大了本地农民工的工资差距。研究结果揭示了劳动力市场监管与经济不平等之间的关系。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Social Science Research SOCIOLOGY-

CiteScore

4.30

自引率

4.00%

发文量

审稿时长

65 days

期刊介绍： Social Science Research publishes papers devoted to quantitative social science research and methodology. The journal features articles that illustrate the use of quantitative methods in the empirical solution of substantive problems, and emphasizes those concerned with issues or methods that cut across traditional disciplinary lines. Special attention is given to methods that have been used by only one particular social science discipline, but that may have application to a broader range of areas.