The Impact of Occupational Characteristics on Income Differences among Urban Employees in China

Abstract

职业是决定就业人员劳动收入, 继而影响居民收入差距程度的重要变量。本文利 用国家统计局2005年全国1%人口抽样调查数据中的子样本, 对职业与收入差别之间的 关系做了经验分析, 结果发现职业间收入差距可以解释城镇就业人员收入总体差距的12-17%。造成这种差别的主要原因有二: 一是由于各职业对就业人员人力资本上的要 求有差异, 从而导致了职业间劳动要素报酬上的差异; 二是劳动力市场、地区分割所 带来的不同职业间人员自由流动的障碍, 造成了这种收入差别。前一种原因强调了人 力资本的作用, 这应当是市场化改革的积极成效; 而后一种原因反映的却是现阶段的 市场化改革还不彻底。因此, 为了缩小职业间不合理的收入差距, 我们还应进一步深 化改革, 尽可能地排除由于市场、地区分割造成的不同职业间人员自由流动的障碍。 关键词: 职业 收入差异 差异分解 市场分割 Occupation is an important variable that determines employees’ labor income and thereby influences income differences among residents. On the basis of the subsample of data from the One Percent National Population Sample Survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics in China in 2005, this paper conducts an empirical analysis of the relationship between occupation and income differences. It finds that inter-occupational income differences explain 12-17 percent of the total income disparity among urban employees. This inter-occupational income disparity is mainly caused by the fact that, first, different occupations have varying human capital requirements, leading to different labor remuneration, and second, labor market and regional segmentation impede the free flow of labor across different occupations. The first factor highlights the role of human capital, and should be seen as a positive effect of market-oriented reform, while the second reflects the incompleteness of this reform at the present stage. Therefore, to narrow unreasonable inter-occupational income gaps, we need to intensify reform and do our best to remove barriers hindering free mobility between occupations.