Topic: AI and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from China

Date: June 17, 2026 (Wednesday) 10:00-11:00

Venue: T1-302-R1

Language: English

Abstract：As artificial intelligence (AI)  spreads worldwide, its impact on labor markets is still unfolding and  remains uncertain, yet potentially far-reaching in developing economies  undergoing rapid structural transformation. This paper provides the  first large-scale evidence from China, where AI investment and adoption  have expanded rapidly, linking local AI labor demand to individual wage  outcomes. We construct city-year measures of AI labor demand from 1.6  million online job postings between 2016 and 2024, capturing the  intensity, breadth, and diversity of AI-related hiring, and merge them  with nationally representative microdata from the China Family Panel  Studies (2016–2022). Fixed-effects estimates show that local AI labor  demand has positive impacts individual wages: a one-unit increase in AI  demand (1,000 postings, firms, or job titles) raises wage by about 0.2-0.3 percent. The benefits, however, are uneven. Women experience stronger gains-about 0.5-0.7 percent per unit increase-while men show no measurable effect. Wage effects are largest in Western provinces and in China’s major AI-cluster cities-Jing-Jin-Ji, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and the Southwest-Central corridor-where complementary production factors and  digital infrastructure are most developed. Occupational analysis further  shows that women’s gains are concentrated in service-oriented and less  skill-intensive jobs where AI complements interpersonal and coordination  tasks rather than substituting them. Overall, AI diffusion generates  meaningful but unequal labor market spillovers, with wage gains  concentrated among women, dynamic regions, and human-AI complementary occupations, underscoring  both the opportunities of technological transformation and the  challenges of achieving inclusive growth.

Biography: Professor Tao FANG has a Ph.D. in Industrial Relations and Human Resources from the University of Toronto. Professor Fang is the Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Economic and Cultural Transformation at Memorial University of Newfoundland and an Adjunct Professor with the University of  Toronto. Currently he holds the J. Robert Beyster Faculty Fellowship at  Rutgers University-the State University of New Jersey, a Research  Fellowship at IZA - Institute for the Study of Labor, and sits on a  World Bank's Expert Advisory Committee on Migration and Development.  Prior to joining Memorial, he was the Director of the Master of  International Business Program at Monash University in Melbourne,  Australia. He served as the President of the Chinese Economists Society (2012-13) and the Domain Leader at CERIS, Ontario Metropolis Centre (2009-12).  He was a visiting professor at Harvard University and NBER, the Wharton  School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania, City University  of Hong Kong, Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), University of  Macao, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, University of Science and  Technology of China, Hanyang University (South Korea). In 2017, he was  made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). He won the Morley  Gunderson Prize from the University of Toronto in 2025.

Professor Fang’s areas of research interest  encompass issues of immigration, diversity, and cultural changes,  pension, retirement policy and the ageing workforce, minimum wages and  youth employment, union impact on wages, innovation and firm growth, pay  equity and employment equity. He has published in such journals as  Strategic Management Journal, Industrial and Labor Relations Review  (Cornell), Industrial Relations (Berkeley), British Journal of  Industrial Relations (LSE), Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations,  International Journal of Human Resource Management, International  Migration, Journal of Immigrants and Refugee Studies, Refuge: Canada's  Journal on Refugees, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: An International  Journal, Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Public Policy, China  Economic Review, World Economy, Asian Economic Paper, Review of  Development Economics, Journal of Economic Psychology, Journal of World  Business, Journal of Labor Research, IZA Journal of Labour Policy,  International Journal of Manpower, Journal of Management History, and  Social Indicators Research.

Professor Fang has received 17 awards from  Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and 5  research grants Employment and Social Development Canada (HRSDC),  totaling over $10 million. He was invited by the Government of Canada as  for the Expert Consultation on Private Pensions in Canada, and for the  Review of Employment. Equity Act.

Professor Fang has also provided  consultative services to Human Resources and Social Development Canada,  Statistics Canada, the Government of Ontario, and the Government of  Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2015, he was appointed as the Jarislowsky  Chair at Memorial University, with $2 million endowment support from the  Jarislowsky Foundation, the Government of NL, and private donations.