The Research On The Impact Of Export Trade On Wage Levels

Reform and opening up30years, China’s export trade and wage increaserapidly,showing a positive correlation,but this doesn’t reflect that trade plays apositive role in wage growth.As the importance of wage for a country’s overalleconomy and social stability,to explore if export trade promotes the growth of wagesand mechanism and size of export trade on wage is not only of theoretical significancebut also of practical significance.As in all industries,the foreign dependence ofmanufacturing industry is highest,this dissertation analyzes data of manufacturingindustry to study how export trade affects wage levels.On the basis of reviewing the theories of trade on wage,this paper points out thatexport trade impacts a country’s wage level from different ways:from the perspectiveof relative demand of labor,export trade affects a country’s wage level mainly throughcommodity price mechanism and technological progress mechanism;from theperspective of relative supply of labor, export trade affects a country’s wage levelmainly through education mechanism.In each mechanism,the mechanism and processof the impact of export trade on wage levels are not the same.Based on theoretical analysis,this paper used1998-2009China’s manufacturingindustry’s average salary and export data in eastern,central and western regions andsub-sectors industry’s average wages and export and other data on the basis of settingout the main factors influencing China’s manufacturing industry’s wage levels toempirically test the impact of export trade on wages from the sub-regional andsub-industry perspective:from the view of eastern,central and western regions, exporttrade played a facilitating role on wages and the degree was different in threeregions.Among them, the impact degree of export trade on wage levels is greatest inthe central region,followed by the western region,and the lowest is the eastern region;from the view of manufacturing sub-sectors in China, sub-sectors’ export trade play afacilitating role on wages and the degree is different.Among them,facilitating degreeof sub-sectors which belong to labor-intensive industries is generally larger thanfacilitating degree of sub-sectors which belong to capital-intensiveindustries.Specifically, the impact degree of textile industry ’s export trade on wagelevels is greatest in labor-intensive industries, and the impact degree ofcommunication equipments,computers and other electronic equipment manufacturing industries’export trade on wages is greatest in capital-intensive industries.Based on the research findings,this paper proposed relative policyrecommendations from the regional level, industry level and national levelrespectively.