TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Hu, Yan
AU  - Maurer, Stephan Ernst
        TI  - Minority Bureaucrats’ Networks and Career Progression: Evidence from the Chinese Maritime Customs Service
        PY  - 2026/May/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18689
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp18689
        AB  - Do minorities benefit from social networks? In this paper, we study this question using the historical example of China’s first modern bureaucratic organization, the Chinese Maritime Customs Service. Drawing on newly digitized personnel records from 1876-1911, we first show that the Chinese clerks employed by the service were predominantly Cantonese. Using the plausibly exogenous transfers of clerks across stations, we then estimate that a non-Cantonese (minority) clerk benefited significantly from meeting at least one colleague from his same province and dialect. Such connections led to faster
promotion and a 5.6% salary increase, with even stronger effects when meeting a clerk who was either senior or of high quality.
        KW  - Chinese Maritime Customs Service
KW  - social connections
KW  - wages
KW  - promotion
KW  - minorities
        ER  -