Gains from trade or from catching-up? Value creation and distribution in the era of China’s WTO accession

In this article we focus on the role of exports in Chinese economic development era WTO accession. We address a series different, although connected, questions. First, do exporting and non-exporting firms differ terms their productivity performance paid wages? Second, to what extent have contributed process convergence catching-up? Third, does productivity-wage pass-through between firms? Overall our findings downplay as both carriers labor wage growth for economy. respect, “gains from catching-up” outweigh any “gain trade”.