The Ethnic Bias in Recruitment Examinations for the Civil Service in Taiwan

This paper studies the effect of recruitment examinations for the civil service on, the concentration of Mainlanders in the public sector, and tests the ethnic selection bias by comparing the wages of Mainlander and Taiwanese government employees. First, in the Senior Examinations (Gao-Kao) and Junior Examinations (Pu-Kao) held between 1950 and 1961, selection was based on a provincial quota which made it easier for Mainlanders to pass the examinations and become government employees. Second, the Special Examinations for Veterans before 1982 had very high pass rates which increased overall ethnic biase toward Mainlanders. Finally, regression results using data from 1979-92 "Household Income and Expenditure Survey" show that, for those born between 1925-36, Mainlander government employees have lower wages than Taiwanese government employees and the differences increase with age. This is consistent with the observation that the recruitment examinations are ethnically biased for the cohort. On the other hand, for the cohorts facing unbiased examinations, those born during 1947-49 and 1950-60, there is no wage difference between Mainlander and Taiwanese government employees.