| 讲座简介： | In this study, we apply panel data from a micro firm-level survey and from city-level data to investigate whether there is causal relationship between agglomeration and establishment wage dispersion in China. We not only examine the short-run linkages between city size and wage dispersion, but also assess their long-run relationship to investigate whether the effects have temporal variation. Furthermore, we explore whether the effects of city size on wage dispersion differ between coastal and inland regions to assess development’s role in forging agglomeration links. In addition, we assess this relationship for different public and private ownership structures within these two regions followed by an investigation of whether it is high-wage or low-wage workers that benefit from agglomeration. Given potential endogeneity of city size, we employ an instrumental variable regression (IV) approach.We find strong evidence that agglomeration has positive effects on wage dispersion in the short run and negative effects in the long run. The link between agglomeration and wage dispersion is much stronger in the inland region than in the coastal region and the differing coastal/interior region results are not due to differing private/public ownership distributions. Rather, these differences appear to be due to differing stages of development. We also find that positive short-term labor demand shocks tend to increase wages relatively uniformly in the upper-half of the distribution, while long-term agglomeration effects dampen average firm wages at the top and middle of the distribution and increase relative wages for firms at the bottom. |
