[Biweekly Symposium] No.351, Hukou and Gender Discrimination
Author:Unirule
Time：2007-12-21 14:13:00 Clicks:
Topic: Hukou and Gender Discrimination Lecturer:Prof. Lei Guang Discussants:Discussants: Prof. Feng Shizhuang, Prof. Xing Chunbin, Prof. Zhang Zhanxin, Prof. Zhang Xinghua, Prof Ge Daoshun, Prof Sheng Hong, Prof Zhang Shuguang
Lecture: At the 351th Unirule bi-weekly symposium, Prof. Lei Guang from the political science department at San Diego State University delivered a speech on Hukou and Gender Discrimination. This research was motivated by the fact that ever since the reform and opening up, there has gradually been more freedom in the labor market, the rural workers can apply for urban jobs and some can even migrate to urban areas which was forbidden in the planned economy era. But still, Hukou matters a lot in employment, i.e. on general the employer favors a worker with urban Hukou then a rural worker. A hùkǒu or hùjí refers to the system of residency permits which dates back to the 1950s where household registration is required by law in mainland China. Beside Hukou, there is also notably the gender discrimination, just like other places in the world. So this study want to analyze the degree of employment discrimination in today’s marketized China. To quantify the effect of discrimination in employment, this study used the audit method. This method of audit pairs operates by controlling for systematic differences across pairs. It does this by attempting to create two candidates for jobs who are “essentially” the same in their paper qualifications and personal characteristics, and then compare their outcomes in their dealings with the same firm. Averaging outcomes at all firms for the same audit pair will produce an estimate of the discrimination effect. Prof. Guang Lei and his associate carried such a quasi-experiment in Beijing in 2004. They had trained two pairs (one pair of female the other male) of job candidates, one pair constituted two people of the same gender with one had Hukou in Beijing while the other in rural area. They had interviewed for 81 low end jobs in total. The main findings of the study were: 1 Other things equal, the possibility of getting a job for an urban applicant would be 15% higher then a rural applicant. 2 Other things equal, the possibility of getting a job for a male applicant would be 15% higher then a female applicant. 3 Other things equal, a rural female worker was least likely to get a job.
