World Bank Project: Labour Market Informality and Economic Transition: China’s Employment Regulation In the Financial Crisis

This project, sponsored by the World Bank, is an internationally cooperated research with scholars and experts from US, UK, World Bank and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. It will increase the understanding of Chinese labour market informality, the effects of labour market informality on controlling economic crisis, and the influences of labour market regulation on informal employment. The research will focus on the following questions: (1) Measuring the nature and scope of negative economic shock effects caused by economic crisis; (2) What types of labour are easily affected by the economic crisis? How can labour in informal sectors handle the crisis, comparing with those in the formal sectors? (3) What are the responses of employment shock in the crisis? What are the differences between formal and informal sectors? Which groups of labour can obtain government aid and social security? Which groups can get personal help from the relatives? Which groups will cut off their expenses? (4) What are the influences of the crisis on migrant workers and their family income? (5) To what extent do enterprises complain about the labour regulation? What are the determinant factors? (6) How does the implication of Labour Contract Law influence employment, wage and income? How does it influence the employment conditions of formal and informal sectors?