The Impact of Intermediate Goods Import on Skill Structure Demand of China
XUE Fei1, WANG Kui-qian2
1.Business School,University of International Business and Economics,Beijing 100029,China 2.Country Risk and Economic Research Department,China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation,Beijing 100033,China
Abstract This paper theoretically analyses the two channels through which intermediate goods import affects China’s skill structure.On the one hand, imported intermediate goods of high quality could replace those domestic products, which leads to the unemployment or transformation of the skill-intensive labor that were originally engaged in production of those goods, thus causing the drop in demand for skilled labor(substitution effect). On the other hand, due to the high quality of imported intermediate goods, enterprises driven by profit maximization will also invest highquality inputs in other production processes, such as hiring skilled labor, which promotes the relative demand for skilled labor (complementary effect). Then the paper continues with an empirical test on industry level using customs data and industrial enterprise data. The regression result justifies the theoretical projection that intermediate goods import does have substitution and complementary effects on skill structure.
2017, Vol. 34 
