Journal of East China Normal University (Philosoph ›› 2017, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (4): 145-159.doi: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5579.2017.04.019

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Has Education Expanded Industry Income Gap?

KONG Qing-yang1, YANG Ming2   

  • Online:2017-07-15 Published:2017-07-14

Abstract:

By calculating Gini coefficient and Theil index of 97 industrial wages from 2003 to 2013, we find out that China's industry income gap had an inverted u-shaped trend, while Theil index rose 17.9% in 2003—2008 and fell by 10.3% in 2013. The average education years for Chinese employers have been annually increasing, while junior middle school graduates account for nearly half of employees. Industry income gap has regional difference. The spatial regression model demonstrates that there is inverted U shape nonlinear relationship between average education years and industry income gap. Education has composition effects on industry income gap, which means that the growth in the proportion of college educated workers narrows the income gap, and shrink effect is difficult to reverse the expansion effect of other qualifications. Generally speaking, education has expanded industry income gap, a conclusion which has been supported by other evidence and is just opposite to previous similar researches. Given this, income inequality between industries shows an inverted U-shaped curve which is similar to Kuznets curve. The industrial monopoly expands income gap, which is positively correlated with the level of market agglomeration in service industry, the market potential, the quality of manpower capital and opening degree.

Key words: Gini coefficient, Theil index, average education years, industry income gap