Research on World Agricultural Economy

The Contribution of Work Experience on Earnings Inequality of Migrant Workers: Decompositions Based on the Quantile Regression Equation

Jiaqi Peng

College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100107, China

Jun Li

College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100107, China

Ling Ma

College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100107, China

Zhiwang Lv

College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100107, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36956/rwae.v4i1.819

Received: 20 February 2023; Received in revised form: 27 March 2023; Accepted: 31 March 2023; Published: 7 April 2023

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Abstract

This paper aims at excavating the influence factors of earning inequality, due to the increasing contribution of earning inequality to income inequality in a rural region. The authors examine the contribution of work experience on earning inequality using survey data. Employing the quantile regression, they estimate the Mincer equation of migrant workers’ earnings and decompose earning inequality by the regression-based decomposition. It has been found that the effects of work experience had been one of the most important contributors to earnings inequality, and its contribution is close to 20%. Furthermore, the authors use the same method to examine the effects on male migrant workers. The results show that work experience had a steady contribution to earning inequality.

Keywords: Earnings inequality; Work experience; Quantile regression; Shapley value

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