Transformations  in
Business & Economics

HETEROGENEITY IN INFORMAL EMPLOYMENT: TYPICAL FACTS FROM THE CHINESE GENERAL SOCIAL SURVEY²
Kangyin Lu, Si Chen, Liwen Jia

ABSTRACT. Based on Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) data in 2013 and 2015, we first define different employment patterns and conduct an empirical analysis of income inequality between different employment patterns through quantile regression and multiple income decomposition methods.
There is obvious heterogeneity within informal employment. On the one hand, due to the degree of informatization, the income of new informal employment is better than that of ordinary informal employment, which is especially reflected in low-income and high-income groups. On the other hand, the income of the non-self-employment is lower than that of the self-employment, and this is mainly caused by discrimination. At the same time, informatization can not only help the informal employment whose income is distributed at the middle and low end to further increase their income but also help the self-employment in the middle-income group to earn more.

KEYWORDS:  Income inequality, Employment pattern, Quantile regression, Decomposition, China.

JEL classification:  D31, E24, J21.

²Acknowledgement:  This research is funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (2019, Project No. 71973022) and Social Science Foundation of Jilin Province (2019, Project No. 2019A10).