Three essays on earnings and earnings inequality in Hong Kong: 1991-2011
Date
2017
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The main goal of this study is to use 5% sample of the Hong Kong population census and by-census datasets to examine three features of earnings in Hong Kong: overall earnings inequality; gender earnings gap; and earnings differences between immigrants and natives. By conducting a counterfactual analysis, I find that a significant portion of the changes in earnings inequality is due to the changes in observed individual characteristics and the changes in return to skills. Over time, the gender earnings gap widened especially at the lower percentiles of the earnings distribution. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition estimates suggest that more than one third of the gender earnings gap at the mean level could be accounted for by the covariate differences. The earnings differential between natives and immigrants tends to be higher at both lower and upper percentiles. By applying the Recentered Influence Function method, I observe that occupational segregation plays an important role in explaining the earnings gap for both the lower and upper percentiles. The difference in educational attainment between Chinese immigrants and natives is responsible for limiting occupational mobility among Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong.
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Keywords
Social sciences, Earnings, Earnings inequality, Hong Kong