nep-cna New Economics Papers
on China
Issue of 2006‒04‒01
four papers chosen by
Zheng Fang
Fudan University

  1. Do Population Control Policies Induce More Human Capital Investment? Twins, Birthweight, and China's 'One Child' Policy By Mark R. Rosenzweig; Junsen Zhang
  2. Environmental Policy and the Location of Foreign Direct Investment in China By Christer Ljungwall; Martin Linde-Rahr
  3. Does Reporting Heterogeneity bias The Measurement of Health Disparities? By Teresa Bago d'Uva; Eddy van Doorslaer; Maarten Lindeboom; Owen O'Donnell; Somnath Chatterji
  4. Exchange Rates, Shocks and Inter-Dependency in East Asia - Lessons from a Multinational Model By Sophie Saglio; Yonghyup Oh; Jacques Mazier

  1. By: Mark R. Rosenzweig (Economic Growth Center, Yale University); Junsen Zhang (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
    Abstract: In this paper we use a new data set describing households with and without twin children in China to quantify the trade-off between the quality and quantity of children using the incidence of twins that for the first time takes into account effects associated with the lower birthweight and closer-spacing of twins compared to singleton births. We show that examining the effects of twinning by birth order, net of the effects stemming from the birthweight deficit of twins, can provide upper and lower bounds on the trade-off between family size and average child quality. Our estimates indicate that, at least in one area of China, an extra child at parity one or at parity two, net of birthweight effects, significantly decreases the schooling progress, the expected college enrollment, grades in school and the assessed health of all children in the family. We also show that estimates of the effects of twinning at higher parities on the outcomes of older children in prior studies do not identify family size effects but are confounded by inter-child allocation effects because of the birthweight deficit of twins. Despite the evident significant trade-off between number of children and child quality in China, however, the findings suggest that the contribution of the one-child policy in China to the development of its human capital was modest.
    Keywords: Family size, Birthweight, Schooling, China
    JEL: J13 I12 I21
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egc:wpaper:933&r=cna
  2. By: Christer Ljungwall (China Center of Economic Research, Peking University); Martin Linde-Rahr (Department of economics and statistics, Goteborg University)
    Abstract: This paper introduce an environmental policy variable, i.e., the provincial pollution levy paid by an average firm, and measure its impact on the foreign investors' location decisions over the 1987 to 1998 period. We argue that less developed regions in China are more inclined to sacrifice environmental policies as an instrument to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). National level results show that stringent environmental policies have insignificant effect on foreign investors' location decision, and that transportation, economic growth, and regional location matters more. At the provincial level stringent environmental policies reduce FDI in the less developed regions.
    Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment, Environmental policy
    JEL: C23 E24 F21 H25 O53 Q28
    Date: 2005–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:macroe:681&r=cna
  3. By: Teresa Bago d'Uva (University of York); Eddy van Doorslaer (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam and Netspar); Maarten Lindeboom (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, HEB, IZA, and Netspar); Owen O'Donnell (University of Macedonia, and Netspar); Somnath Chatterji (World Health Organization)
    Abstract: Heterogeneity in reporting of health by socio-economic and demographic characteristics potentially biases the measurement of health disparities. We use anchoring vignettes to identify reporting heterogeneity in self reports on health for Indonesia, India and China. Correcting for reporting heterogeneity tends to reduce estimated disparities in health by age, sex (not Indonesia), urban/rural and education (not China) and to increase income disparities in health. Overall, while homogeneous reporting by socio-demographic group is significantly rejected, the results suggest that the size of the reporting bias in measures of health disparities is not large.
    Keywords: health measurement; vignettes; self-reported health; reporting heterogeneity
    JEL: D30 D31 I10 I12
    Date: 2006–03–28
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20060033&r=cna
  4. By: Sophie Saglio (University of Paris 13); Yonghyup Oh (Department of International Economics and Finance of Korea Institute for International Economic Policy); Jacques Mazier (University of Paris 13)
    Abstract: This paper presents a simple macroeconomic model of international interdependency describing Korea, Japan, China, and the rest of East Asia in their relations with the United States and the rest of the world. The model includes both a foreign trade block and an internal demand block analysing demand formation and the price-wage-employment adjustment process. Exchange rates are fixed, but can be manipulated exogenously. The main features of the East Asian trade structure are integrated into the model, and foreign trade price elasticises are higher for Korea and China and smaller for Japan.
    Keywords: Multinational model, East Asian interdependency, exchange rates, asymmetric shocks
    JEL: C52 F15 F17 F42
    Date: 2005–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:macroe:683&r=cna

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