Middle Wage Research Articles

Has Internet Usage Really Narrowed the Gender Wage Gap?: Evidence from Chinese General Social Survey Data

Based on the data from a sample of 4832 from the Chinese General Social Survey in 2018, this study examines the impact of Internet usage on the wage equation for males and females by using the robust least squares regression method, the threshold regression method, and the quantile regression method and decomposes the gender wage gap on this basis by using the RIF regression decomposition method. The findings show that, firstly, in either linear or nonlinear effects, Internet usage has a significant wage premium effect on the male wage equation, and this premium effect increases as male wage income rises, but Internet usage consistently does not have a significant effect on the female wage equation. Secondly, 26.73% of the overall gender wage gap is due to Internet usage, and the presence of gender discrimination in the cyberspace is a significant contributor to this result. Thirdly, Internet usage causes the gender wage gaps at different wage levels to be further widened to different degrees. Specifically, Internet usage has the strongest effect on the gender wage gap at lower wage levels, the second strongest effect on the gender wage gap at higher wage levels, and the weakest effect on the gender wage gap at middle wage levels. The different levels of gender discrimination experienced by females in the cyberspace are an important cause of the differential widening effect of Internet usage on gender wage gaps at different wage levels. Therefore, this study proposes policy recommendations in terms of regulating gender discrimination and introducing relevant female protection policies.

Does Energy Poverty Reduce Rural Labor Wages? Evidence From China’s Rural Household Survey

Eliminating energy poverty is helpful to get rid of the vicious circle between the lack of adequate and affordable energy services and low income in rural areas. We deconstruct energy poverty into extensive energy poverty and intensive energy poverty and analyze the net effect and its heterogeneity of energy poverty on rural labor wages with micrometric methods, as well as further investigate the impact mechanism from education effect and health effect. The results show that both extensive energy poverty and intensive energy poverty have a significant negative effect on the wages of rural workers, and the marginal effect of extensive energy poverty on the wages of rural workers is lower than that of intensive energy poverty. In addition, the net effect of energy poverty on the wages of rural workers shows labor heterogeneity and regional heterogeneity, and the inhibition effect to low skilled workers and workers with middle wage and in the Western region is the most obvious. Furthermore, energy poverty will limit the access of rural workers to education and damage their health, and then inhibit their productivity and wage. Our results suggest that enhancing the accessibility of energy consumption in rural areas and reducing the incidence of energy poverty are critically essential, and the implementation and optimization of energy poverty alleviation policy should give full consideration to labor force heterogeneity and regional heterogeneity.

The March of the Techies: Job Polarization Within and Between Firms

Using administrative employee-firm-level data on the entire private sector from 1994 to 2007, we show that the labor market in France has polarized: employment shares of high and low wage occupations grew, while middle wage occupations shrank. At the same time, the share of technology-related occupations (“techies”) grew substantially. Aggregate polarization was driven mostly by changes in the composition of firms within industries. Within-firm adjustments and changes in industry composition were much less important. Polarization occured mostly within urban areas, with roughly equal contributions of men and women. We study the role of technology adoption in shaping firm-level outcomes using a new measure of the propensity of a firm to adopt new technology: its employment share of techies. We find that techies were an important force driving aggregate polarization in France, as firms with more techies grew faster.

Automation and Job Polarization: On the Decline of Middling Occupations in Europe

Using data from 10 Western European countries, I provide evidence that the fall of prices of information technologies (IT) is associated with a lower share of employment in middle wage occupations and a higher share of employment in high wage occupations. The decline of IT prices has no robust effect on the share of employment in the lowest paid occupations. Similar results hold within gender, age and education-level groups, with notable differences in these groups. For instance, the share of employment in high wage occupations among females has increased more than among males with the fall of IT prices. This is consistent with arguments that women hold a comparative advantage in communication and social skills, which are in demand in high wage occupations.

Sleep Health and Predicted Cardiometabolic Risk Scores in Employed Adults From Two Industries.

Sleep disorders and sleep deficiency can increase the risk for cardiovascular disease. Less is known about whether multiple positive attributes of sleep health known as the SATED (satisfaction, alertness, timing, efficiency, and duration) model, can decrease future cardiovascular disease risks. We examined whether and how a variety of indicators of sleep health predicted 10-year estimated cardiometabolic risk scores (CRS) among employed adults. Workers in two industries-extended care (n = 1,275) and information technology (IT; n = 577)-reported on habitual sleep apnea symptoms and sleep sufficiency, and provided 1 week of actigraphy data including nighttime sleep duration, wake after sleep onset (WASO), sleep timing, and daytime napping. Workers also provided biomarkers to calculate future cardiometabolic risk. More sleep apnea symptoms predicted higher CRS in both industries. More sleep sufficiency, less WASO, and less daytime napping (having no naps, fewer naps, and shorter nap duration) were also linked to lower CRS, but only in the extended care workers. There was no effect of sleep duration in both industries. In the IT employee sample, shorter sleep duration (≤ 6 hours versus 6-8 hours) and more naps strengthened the link between sleep apnea and CRS. Sleep health, measured by both subjective and objective methods, was associated with lower cardiometabolic disease risks among extended care workers (lower to middle wage workers). Sleep apnea was an important predictor of CRS; for the IT workers, the link between sleep apnea and CRS was exacerbated when they had poorer sleep health behaviors.

Automation and Job Polarization: On the Decline of Middling Occupations in Europe

Using data from 10 Western European countries, I provide evidence that the fall of prices of information technologies (IT) is associated with a lower share of employment in middle wage occupations and a higher share of employment in high wage occupations. The decline of IT prices has no robust effect on the share of employment in the lowest paid occupations. Similar results hold within gender, age and education-level groups, with notable differences in these groups. For instance, the share of employment in high wage occupations among females has increased more than among males with the fall of IT prices. This is consistent with arguments that women hold a comparative advantage in communication and social skills, which are in demand in high wage occupations.

The March of the Techies: Technology, Trade, and Job Polarization in France, 1994-2007

Using administrative employee-firm-level data on the entire private sector from 1994 to 2007, we show that the labor market in France has polarized: employment shares of high and low wage occupations have grown, while middle wage occupations have shrunk. During the same period, the share of hours worked in technology-related occupations (“techies”) grew substantially, as did imports and exports, and we explore the causal links between these trends. Our paper is among the first to analyze polarization in any country using firm-level data, and we show how polarization occurred within firms, but mostly due to changes in the composition of firms (between firms). Motivated by the fact that technology adoption is mediated by technically qualified managers and technicians, we use a new measure of the propensity of a firm to adopt new technology: its employment share of techies. Using the subsample of firms that are active over the whole period, we show that firms with more techies in 2002 saw greater polarization, and grew faster, from 2002 to 2007. Offshoring reduced employment growth. Among blue-collar workers in manufacturing, importing caused skill upgrading while exporting caused skill downgrading. To control for the endogeneity of firm-level techies and trade in 2002, we use values of techies and trade from 1994 to 1998 as instruments. We conclude that technological change, mediated through techies, is an important cause of polarization in France. Firm-level trade had important effects in manufacturing.

Defining Skilled Technical Work

This paper proposes a new definition of skilled technical workers, variously known as middle-skilled, craft workers or trade workers. Here, occupations are classified as skilled technical workers if workers in these groups exhibit high levels of knowledge in at least one technical domain and modal employment requirement is less than a bachelor's degree. This definition is compared to others in the literature that use middle wage or educational classifications. Relative to those classifications, occupations meeting the skilled technical definition requirements are more likely to be paid a wage premium, exhibit high levels of technical skill, and require more experience and on-the-job training. The analysis concludes that including skill in broad occupational classifications is important in accurately assessing occupational differences generally and enhances the understanding of the technical labor force specifically.

Rise of the Machines: The Effects of Labor-Saving Innovations on Jobs and Wages

How do firms respond to technological advances that facilitate the automation of tasks? Which tasks will they automate, and what types of worker will be replaced as a result? We present a model that distinguishes between a task's engineering complexity and its training requirements. When two tasks are equally complex, firms will automate the task that requires more training and in which labor is hence more expensive. Under quite general conditions this leads to job polarization, a decline in middle wage jobs relative to both high and low wage jobs. Our theory explains recent and historical instances of job polarization as caused by labor-replacing technologies, such as computers, the electric motor, and the steam engine, respectively. The model makes novel predictions regarding occupational training requirements, which we find to be consistent with US data.

Wage inequality, technology and trade: 21st century evidence

This paper describes and explains some of the principal trends in the wage and skill distribution in recent decades. Increases in wage inequality started in the US and UK at the end of the 1970s, but are now widespread. A good fraction of this inequality trend is due to technology-related increases in the demand for skilled workers outstripping the growth of their supply. Since the early 1990s, labor markets have become more polarized with jobs in the middle third of the wage distribution shrinking and those in the bottom and top third rising. I argue that this is because computerization complements the most skilled tasks, but substitutes for routine tasks performed by middle wage occupations such as clerks, leaving the demand for the lowest skilled service tasks largely unaffected. Finally, I argue that technology is partly endogenous, for example it has been spurred by trade with China. Thus, trade does matter for changes in the labor market, but through a different mechanism than conventionally thought.

Top wage incomes in Japan, 1951–2005

Using wage income tax statistics, we construct continuous series of upper wage income shares in Japan from 1951 to 2005 to document the evolution of top wage incomes and investigate their long-run determinants. We find that, while the middle wage income class gained enormously both in absolute and relative terms during the period of high economic growth, the upper wage income class faired comparatively better after 1975. In particular, the shares of total wage accruing to the top 1% wage earners and above have risen steadily since the late 1990s. A simple time-series regression analysis indicates that marginal income tax rates, corporate performance, female labor force participation, and labor disputes are important determinants of top wage income shares in post-WWII Japan. Although not conclusive, our results suggest that much of the recent gains in wage income shares at the top can be explained by the changes in these four factors, placing a less emphasis on a story of structural change.

Which Human Capital Matters for Rich and Poor's Wages? Evidence from Matched Worker-Firm Data from Tunisia

In this paper, we study the return to human capital variables for wages of workers observed in Tunisian matched worker-firm data in 1999. This reveals us how returns to human capital in a Less Developed Country like Tunisia may differ from the industrial countries usually studied with matched data. We develop a new method based on multivariate analysis of firm characteristics, which allows us most of the benefits obtained by introducing firm dummies in wage equations for studying the effect of education. It also provides a human capital interpretation of the effect of these dummy variables. Moreover, in the studied data, using three firm characteristics easily collectable yields results close to those obtained by using the matched structure of the data. The workers with low wages or low conditional wages experience greater returns to human capital than workers belonging to the middle of the wage distribution, while their return to schooling is significantly lower than that of high wage workers. The estimates support the hypothesis that human capital is associated with positive intra-firm externality on wages. Therefore, a given worker would be more productive and better paid in an environment strongly endowed in human capital. However, the low wage workers do not take advantage of the human capital in the firm. Conversely, the low wage workers benefit from working in the textile sector in terms of wages unlike the middle and high wage workers. Finally, the low wage workers and high wage workers benefit from an innovative environment, while the middle wage workers do not.

The Household, Time Use and Tax Policy

This paper is concerned with modelling household decisions and the welfare effects of tax policy. It seeks to emphasise the importance of a model that incorporates household production and can take account of the evident female labour supply heterogeneity across two-parent families. If, after having children, some proportion of households substitute domestic for market labour supply, the income and consumption variables used as the tax base in most countries may be poorly correlated with living standards. Taxes and welfare programs based on these variables may increase inequality by shifting the overall tax burden to low and middle wage families with both partners in work, away from families with much higher wages and in which only one member works to earn the same joint market income. The paper combines data on time use, income, taxes and benefits to show how they track female labour supply over the life cycle, resulting in much higher tax burdens on two-earner households. (JEL D13, D91, H31, J22)