Inter-industry wage premiums and industry-specific productivity in Taiwan

Author: Hsu, Pi-Fem

Source: Applied Economics, Volume 37, Number 13, 20 July 2005 , pp. 1523-1533(11)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $50.43 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

By using Taiwan's Manpower Utilization Survey data for the 1978–2000 period, different inter-industry wage premiums in Taiwan are observed and the impact of workers' industry-specific productivity on the wage explored. The empirical results show that industry-specific skills result in industry stayers having higher wages than industry switchers through their reservation wages. It is also found that the pre-displacement industry affiliations that are associated with the post-displacement wages are explained by the workers' unobserved abilities. Furthermore, by comparing the different residual means between industry switchers and stayers based on each industry's wage equation, it is found that the switchers are low-wage workers who tend to be located in the high-wage industries. The high-wage industry leavers are also found to have higher post-displacement wage residuals than the low-wage industry leavers. These results suggest that the differences in industry wage premiums may be explained by the industry-specific productivity.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00036840500118861

Affiliations: 1: Department of Finance, I-Shou University, Taiwan, Email: hsupf@isu.edu.tw

Publication date: 2005-07-20

More about this publication?