近日，日本法政大学马欣欣教授、浙江大学博士生韩佳辰和我院院长李实教授合作撰写的论文Tasks and the gender wage gap in urban China, 2002-2023在国际知名经济学期刊《China Economic Review》上发表。
任务结构与中国城镇性别工资差距：2002—2023
CER推送作为作者与读者的沟通平台，将定期介绍发表于CER上的文章。本次推送将介绍马欣欣、韩佳辰、李实于2026年发表在CER上的文章Tasks and the Gender Wage Gap in Urban China, 2002–2023。
The CER WeChat blog serves as a communication platform for authors and readers, providing regular introductions to articles published in CER. This post features the article “Tasks and the Gender Wage Gap in Urban China, 2002–2023” by Xinxin Ma, Jiachen Han, and Shi Li.
性别工资差距仍然是实现包容性和可持续经济发展面临的最持久挑战之一。随着信息与通信技术和人工智能持续改变工作结构，理解技术变革如何影响性别不平等已成为学术界和政策制定者日益关注的重要议题。尽管近期越来越多来自发达国家的研究表明，任务偏向型技术变革通过推动工作任务从常规性向非常规性转变，对工资不平等，包括性别工资差距，产生重要影响，但关于中国等发展中国家的相关证据仍然十分有限。本研究首次分析了任务结构如何影响2002—2023年中国城镇性别工资差距。
The gender wage gap (GWG) remains one of the most persistent challenges to inclusive and sustainable economic development. As information and communication technology (ICT) and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to transform the nature of work, understanding how technological change affects gender inequality has become increasingly important for both researchers and policymakers. While a growing body of evidence from developed countries suggests that task-biased technological change has reshaped wage structures through shifts from routine to non-routine work, with important implications for wage inequality, including the GWG, empirical evidence from developing countries such as China remains limited. This study provides the first analysis of whether and how changes in task structures have influenced the GWG in urban China over the period 2002–2023.
基于中国家庭收入调查（CHIP）的全国代表性数据、美国职业信息网络（O*NET）的职业信息以及《中国职业分类大典》（CSCO）的职业数据，我们构建了2002年、2013年和2023年三个时期具有可比性的非常规任务强度指标。在此基础上，我们首先采用工资方程分析非常规任务工资溢价及其性别差异，并进行多种稳健性检验。其次，比较了非常规任务工资溢价在工资分布不同位置和不同人口群体之间的差异。最后，我们运用基于工资均值和分布的多种分解方法，分析任务影响性别工资差距的作用机制。
Combining nationally representative data from the Chinese Household Income Project survey with occupational information from the U.S. Occupational Information Network (O*NET) and the Chinese Standard Classification of Occupations, we construct comparable measures of non-routine task intensity across three years (2002, 2013, and 2023). We first employ a wage equation framework to analyze the wage premium of non-routine tasks, compare gender differences in wage premiums, and conduct a series of robustness checks. Then, we examine how the non-routine task wage premium varies across different points of the wage distribution and across different demographic groups. Finally, we use multiple decomposition methods based on both mean wages and wage distributions to analyze the mechanisms through which tasks affect the GWG.
实证结果表明，在2002—2023年期间，女性从事非常规任务所获得的工资回报始终高于男性。本文通过调整分析样本的年龄范围，采用发达国家研究中常用的多种职业匹配方法构建替代性非常规任务强度指标，以及使用任务类别变量等方法进行稳健性检验，结果均支持上述结论。然而，这种女性优势的幅度在不同年龄群体、教育水平以及工资分布位置之间存在明显差异。分解结果进一步表明，任务结构主要通过两个渠道影响性别工资差距。一方面，非常规任务工资回报的性别差异（价格效应）在三个样本年份均有助于缩小性别工资差距，但其作用从2002年到2023年呈现减弱趋势。另一方面，非常规任务配置的性别差异（禀赋效应）在2002年和2023年扩大了性别工资差距，而在2013年则发挥了缩小差距的作用。此外，无论是价格效应还是禀赋效应，其对性别工资差距的影响均在工资分布的不同位置上表现出明显差异。我们结合经济学理论、技术进步引致的劳动供需变化，以及中国劳动力市场政策背景，对上述结果进行解释，并将本研究的发现与发达国家的相关研究进行了比较。
The empirical results indicate that women consistently received higher wage premiums for non-routine tasks than men throughout 2002–2023. We conducted a series of robustness checks using multiple approaches, including altering the age range of the analytical sample, constructing alternative measures of non-routine task intensity based on several occupation-matching methods commonly used in studies of developed countries, and using task category variables. The results consistently support this conclusion. However, the magnitude of this advantage varied substantially across age groups, educational attainment levels, and the wage distribution. The decomposition results show that the gender disparities in wage premiums for non-routine tasks (the price effect) contributed to narrowing the GWG in all three sample years, although their effects declined from 2002 to 2023. By contrast, the gender differences in the allocation of non-routine tasks (the endowment effect) widened the GWG in 2002 and 2023, while narrowing it in 2013. Additionally, both the endowment and price effects on the GWG differ across wage distributions in each year. We interpret the findings in light of economic theories, changes in labor demand and supply driven by technological progress, and labor market policy reforms in China. We also compare our results with the findings from developed countries.
本研究主要有三个边际贡献。首先，基于任务框架对发展中国家的性别工资差距的实证研究仍然相对有限。本研究首次提供了来自2002—2023年中国城镇劳动力市场的证据，检验了基于发达国家劳动力市场情形下的任务偏向的技术变革假说，有助于加深对常规任务与非常规任务如何影响发展中国家和新兴市场经济体性别工资差距的理解。其次，本研究分析了任务影响性别工资差距的两个形成机制(价格效应和禀赋效应)，并比较了其在2002—2023年间的变化。这些结果进一步阐明了过去二十年中国任务结构影响性别工资差距的作用机制及其演变。最后，我们进一步分析了任务对性别工资差距的影响在不同人口群体（包括年龄、教育水平以及工资分布）之间的异质性。这些分组分析为理解任务对性别工资差距影响的异质性提供了更丰富的证据。
This study makes three key contributions to the literature. First, empirical studies on the gender wage gap in developing countries within a task-based framework remain relatively limited. This study provides the first evidence from China over the period 2002–2023, testing the task-biased technological change hypothesis developed in the context of developed-country labor markets. It helps deepen our understanding of how routine and non-routine tasks affect the GWG in developing countries and emerging market economies. Second, this study simultaneously examines the two channels (endowment and price effects) through which tasks influence the GWG and compares how these channels changed from 2002–2023. These results further clarify the mechanisms underlying the task–GWG nexus and their evolution over the past two decades. Finally, we extend the analysis by exploring how the influence of tasks on the GWG varies across demographic groups, including age, education, and the wage distribution. These subgroup analyses provide deeper insights into the heterogeneous effects of tasks on the GWG across different groups.
实证分析结果表明，反就业歧视政策、教育和数字技能投资，以及旨在确保信息与通信技术和人工智能技术进步的成果能够更加公平地惠及不同性别的包容性劳动力市场政策，有助于降低性别收入不平等。尤其对于年龄较大、受教育程度较低以及处于低工资水平的女性群体而言，这些政策对于促进其更好地适应人工智能时代的劳动力市场变革、进一步缩小性别收入差距具有重要意义。
The results suggest that anti-discrimination policies, investments in education and digital skills, and inclusive labor market interventions aimed at ensuring that the benefits of the ICT and AI revolution are shared more equally across genders can contribute to reducing gender-based income inequality, particularly among older, less-educated, and low-wage women.
作者简介
马欣欣，日本法政大学经济学院教授。研究领域为劳动经济学和发展经济学，目前主要关注制度变革与收入不平等、技术变革对劳动力市场的影响，以及中日劳动力市场的比较研究。近年的研究成果发表于China Economic Review，Journal of Asian Economics，China & World Economy，Emerging Markets Review等国际期刊。
Xinxin Ma is a Professor at the Faculty of Economics, Hosei University, Japan. Her research specializes in labor economics and development economics, with current interests in institutional transition and income inequality, technological change and labor market outcomes, and comparative studies of labor market in China and Japan. Her recent work has been published in international journals, including China Economic Review, Journal of Asian Economics, China & World Economy, and Emerging Markets Review.
韩佳辰，浙江大学公共管理学院博士研究生。主要研究领域为劳动经济学，重点关注中国数字经济发展、任务偏向型技术变革与收入不平等问题。研究成果发表于Humanities and Social Sciences Communications和被 Economic Development and Cultural Change、China Economic Review国际期刊接收。
Jiachen Han is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, China. Her research specializes in labor economics, with a particular focus on digital economy development, task-biased technological change, and income inequality in China. Her work has been published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, and has been accepted for publication in journals including Economic Development and Cultural Change, and China Economic Review.
李实，浙江大学文科资深教授、共享与发展研究院院长、兼任北京师范大学中国收入分配研究院院长。研究领域为劳动经济学和发展经济学，重点关注收入和财产分配不平等，贫困和社会保障等问题。研究成果发表于China Economic Review，Journal of Comparative Economics，Journal of Population Economics和Review of Income and Wealth等国际期刊。
Shi Li is a Distinguished Professor at Zhejiang University and Dean of the Institute for Common Prosperity and Development. He also serves as a Dean of the China Institute for Income Distribution at Beijing Normal University. His research specializes in labor economics and development economics. His research focuses on income and wealth distribution, poverty, and social security. His work has been published in journals, including China Economic Review, Journal of Comparative Economics, Journal of Population Economics, and Review of Income and Wealth.
阅读原文：https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X26000908