台灣薪資停滯現象解析—全球化貿易與投資夥伴

Abstract

台灣實質薪資水準於近十多年來近乎停滯狀態。有鑑於台灣高度依賴外貿的經濟特質，本文將從全球化與兩岸經貿關係來解析台灣的薪資停滯現象。理論上隨著經濟發展的演進，薪資成長減緩有其必然性，全球化尤其是勞工豐沛的大經濟體如中國的開放與融入國際貿易體系，則促使這個薪資增長速度從遞增而減緩乃至停滯的演進速度變快。相對於日韓等鄰近國家，台灣高度依賴中國大陸的出口貿易與投資，使得台灣薪資進入停滯期的階段提早到來。透過中國主要貿易夥伴的實證研究，我們證實貿易與投資關係的確是造成兩岸薪資相對靠近的因素，另外也證實保持經濟發展的領先與技術優勢，可以顯著地讓先進國家拋開被中國低薪資水準所牽絆的困境。

The real wage rate in Taiwan has stagnated for more than ten years since 1997. This paper scrutinizes the long-term wage stagnation phenomenon from the aspect of globalization, especially the close relationship with Mainland China in trade and investment. Firstly, we argue that along with economic development, the wage rate will evolve normally from high-growth period to die-down period. And, the opening up of the labor-rich countries like China will accelerate declining speed of wage for the developed countries. However, Taiwan’s wage appears to decline even faster than that of other neighboring countries like Korea and Japan. The wage-binding effect is due to closer trade and FDI linkage with China, according to factor price equalization theorem in trade theory. Then, by empirical study upon China’s major trade partners, we show that trade and FDI relationship significantly explain the wage-tie to China, and keeping advance in development and better technology can offset the wage-linkage.