近日，我院戴觅副教授与新加坡国立大学黄炜，香港中文大学张轶凡的合作论文“How Do Households Adjust to Tariff Liberalization: Evidence from China’s WTO Accession”被发展经济学国际顶级期刊Journal of Development Economics 接受发表。

该文采用微观住户调查数据，考察了中国城镇家户如何应对关税下降造成的劳动力市场冲击。文章发现，中国加入WTO之后，进口关税下降带来的进口竞争降低了部分城市居民的工资增长。家户通过调整劳动力供给、改变居住安排、以及调整消费和储蓄等手段部分对冲了这一劳动力市场冲击的负面影响。该研究意味着家户的共同决策作为一种“非正式保险”，有助于缓解贸易自由化过程中对特定群体产生的负面冲击。

Abstract

This paper investigates how households adjust to local labor market shocks caused by import tariff liberalization in China. Exploiting regional variation in the exposure to tariff cuts resulting from the WTO accession, we find that regions that initially specialized in industries facing larger tariff cuts experienced relatively larger wage declines. Households responded to the shock in several ways, including more female and old household members working, more young adults co-residing with parents, and households saving less. These findings suggest an insurance role of households against trade-induced labor market shocks.