Who gets the wage premium from export: Top managers or employees?

• DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2018.04.006
• Publication Date: 2018-04-17T22:51:40Z
• Authors: Dongmin Kong; Gaowen Kong; Lirang Pang; Jian Zhang
• Keywords: 0502 economics and business; 05 social sciences; 8. Economic growth

Abstract This study seeks to identify the effect of export on the wages of top managers and employees. Using a manually collected dataset based on Chinese listed firms, we determine that export significantly enhances the average wages of firms. However, only top managers benefit from the wage premium, whereas employees do not. Consistent results based on instrumental variable and difference-in-difference matching approaches are obtained. We further show that employees with high educational level obtain significant wage premiums and top managers with overseas work experience earn higher compensations. This paper provides clear implications for firm management practices and regulators in emerging economies.