Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of Chinese and non-Chinese import penetration on the inter-industry wage premium, and how such effects vary according to the unskilled-labor intensity of the industry and to the implementation of the Nova Matriz Economica policy in 2008.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper empirically examines the effects of the Chinese and non-Chinese import penetration on the wage premium using a linear instrumental variables model and data from Brazilian household surveys and censuses.
Findings
The estimates show the Chinese import penetration positively affecting the wage premium in unskilled-labor intensive. And the implementation of the new macroeconomic policy strengthened this effect.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first paper to study the effects of Chinese and non-Chinese import penetration on the inter-industry wage premium.