11
Christina Jenq
, a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at HKUST IEMS
and the HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study, presented
her research on the growing inequality in wages and employment
outcomes in urban China over the past two decades. This growth
in inequality has coincided with the restructuring of China’s state-
owned enterprises (SOEs) and other reforms affecting the urban
labor market.
Before these reforms, wage and employment inequality in urban
China was relatively low. Virtually all urban enterprises were state-
or collective-owned. Moreover, the labor market was centrally
regulated, making it nearly impossible to fire unproductive workers.
However, following reforms in the 1990s, inequality—and gender
inequality in particular—increased significantly.
Dr. Jenq’s research focuses on the impact of widespread privatization
of state-owned enterprises on rising gender inequality. In her
analysis, Dr. Jenq exploited regional variation in the composition of
industries in China to analyze the causal effect of the privatization
rate (which varied across industries) on changes in the gender gap
in urban employment, and used a multivariate regression analysis
using a carefully chosen set of controls.
Based on the results of her analysis, Dr. Jenq postulates that 30-
50% of the increase in gender imbalance in urban employment can
be explained by gender-asymmetric industry-level privatization. Dr.
Jenq cautions against quota-based employment policies aimed at
Ownership-Specific Human Capital and
the Employment Gender Gap in Urban China
HKUST IEMS Academic Seminar (2015.05.07)
OTHER ACADEMIC SEMINARS
Watch Dr Jenq explain the key takeaways
from her Thought Leadership Brief at
reducing the employment gender
gap (as there was scant evidence
of gender discrimination found
in her analysis), and instead
recommends increases in both
skill training programs as well as
childcare and education benefits
to allow more urban women the
opportunity to enter the labor
force.
Dr. Jenq’s research on the
employment gender gap in
urban China has also been
featured as an HKUST IEMS
Thought Leadership Brief (see
link below), which provides further detail on her methodology,
findings, and policy recommendations.
2015.05.04
The Structure of
Economic Globalization:
It’s a Small World After All
Joon Nak Choi (HKUST)
* More about the event at
2015.02.16
Once an Enemy, Forever an Enemy?
The Long-run Impact of the Japanese
Invasion of China from 1937 to 1945
on Trade and Investment
Zhigang Tao (University of Hong
Kong)
* Video recording available at
2015.03.02
Is the PDS Already a Cash Transfer?
Rethinking India’s Food Subsidy
Policies
Sujata Balasubramanian (HKUST)
* Video recording available at
