Internet use and the gender wage gap in China
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Date
2021
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University of New Brunswick
Abstract
The use of internet increases the frequency of communication and flexibility of work, which has a far reaching impact on wage distribution in China. This report examines the impact of internet use (IU) on the gender wage gap (GWG) in China. Using a cross-sectional data set from the Chinese General Social Survey for 2013, 2015, and 2017, I conduct the Oaxaca-Blinder and quantile decompositions based on Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and quantile regressions, and find that (i) IU has a positive impact on the hourly wages for both men and women; (ii) IU reduces the GWG in China over time; and (iii) the explained factors (e.g., education, experience) reduce the GWG while unexplained factors (e.g., gender discrimination) widen the GWG at different quartiles of wages and across different age groups. These findings have important policy implications and provide evidence of IU leading to a reduced GWG in China.