nep-cna New Economics Papers
on China
Issue of 2016‒11‒13
five papers chosen by
Zheng Fang
Ohio State University

  1. Trade, Pollution and Mortality in China By Matilde Bombardini; Bingjing Li
  2. Fertility Restrictions and Life Cycle Outcomes: Evidence from the One Child Policy in China By Wei Huang
  3. Maternal Education, Parental Investment and Non-Cognitive Characteristics in Rural China By Jessica Leight; Elaine M. Liu
  4. Transplanting clean-tech paths from elsewhere: The emergence of the Chinese solar PV industry By Binz, Christian; Diaz Anadon, Laura
  5. Does corruption matter for the environment? Panel evidence from China By Liao, Xianchun; Dogan, Eyup; Baek, Jungho

  1. By: Matilde Bombardini; Bingjing Li
    Abstract: Has the expansion in exports affected pollution and health outcomes across different prefectures in China in the two decades between 1990 and 2010? We exploit variation in the initial industrial composition to gauge the effect of export expansion due to the decline in tariffs faced by Chinese exporters. We construct two export shocks at the prefecture level: (i) PollutionExportShock represents the pollution content of export expansion and is measured in pounds of pollutants per worker; (ii) ExportShock measures export expansion in dollars per worker. The two measures differ because prefectures specialize in different products: while two prefectures may experience the same shock in dollar terms, the one specializing in the dirty sector has a larger PollutionExportShock. We instrument export shocks using the change in tariffs faced by Chinese producers exporting to the rest of the world. We find that the pollution content of export affected pollution and mortality. A one standard deviation increase in PollutionExportShock increases infant mortality by 2.2 deaths per thousand live births, which is about 13% of the standard deviation of infant mortality change during the period. The dollar value of export expansion tends to reduce mortality, but is not always statistically significant. We show that the channel through which exports affect mortality is pollution concentration: a one standard deviation increase in PollutionExportShock increases SO2 concentration by 5.4 micrograms per cubic meter (the average is around 60). We find a negative, but insignificant effect on pollution of the dollar-value export shocks, a potential “technique” effect whereby higher income drives demand for clean environment. We find that only infant mortality related to cardio-respiratory conditions responds to exports shocks, while deaths due to accidents and other causes are not affected.
    JEL: F1 I1 Q53
    Date: 2016–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22804&r=cna
  2. By: Wei Huang
    Abstract: I use the experience of China's One Child Policy to examine how fertility restrictions affect economic and social outcomes over the lifetime. The One Child Policy imposed a birth quota and heavy penalties for ?out-of-plan? births. Using variation in the fertility penalties across provinces over time, I examine how fertility restrictions imposed early in the lives of individuals affected their educational attainment, marriage and fertility decisions, and later life economic outcomes. Exposure to stricter fertility restrictions when young leads to higher education, more white-collar jobs, delayed marriage, and lower fertility. Further consequences include lower rates of residing with the elderly, higher household income, consumption, and saving. Finally, exposure to stricter fertility restrictions in early life increases later life female empowerment as measured by an increase in the fraction of households headed by women, female-oriented consumption, and gender-equal opinions. Overall, fertility restrictions imposed when people are young have powerful effects throughout the life cycle. (JEL classification: H70, I20, J00, O12)
    Date: 2016–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qsh:wpaper:462311&r=cna
  3. By: Jessica Leight (Williams College); Elaine M. Liu (University of Houston)
    Abstract: This paper evaluates the parental response to non-cognitive variation across siblings in Gansu province, China, employing a household xed e ects speci cation. The non-cognitive indices are de ned as the inverse of externalizing challenges (behavioral problems) and internalizing challenges (anxiety and withdrawal). The results suggest that there is signi cant heterogeneity with respect to maternal education; educated mothers compensate for di erences between their children, investing more in a child exhibiting greater non-cognitive de cits, while less educated mothers reinforce these di erences. Most importantly, there is evidence that these investments lead to the narrowing of non-cognitive de cits over time for children of more educated mothers.
    Keywords: non-cognitive characteristics, parental investment, intrahousehold allocation
    JEL: I24 O15 D13
    Date: 2016–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wil:wileco:2016-05&r=cna
  4. By: Binz, Christian (CIRCLE, Lund University); Diaz Anadon, Laura (Harvard University)
    Abstract: New clean-tech industries emerge in increasingly complex spatial patterns that challenge existing explanations on industrial path creation. In particular, the case of latecomer regions quickly building up industries in fields that are unrelated to their previous industrial capabilities is not well understood in the literature. This paper aims to address this gap with an analytical framework that draws on technological innovation system and catching-up literatures to specify the place-specific and extra-regional system resources that firms in latecomer regions draw on in the industry formation process. An in-depth case study of the Chinese solar photovoltaics (PV) sector reveals an industry formation process that differs from existing models. Rather than depending on linkages with multinational companies, extensive policy support, or gradual recombination of pre-existing domestic capabilities, early industry formation in the Chinese solar PV sector emerged from path transplantation in a highly internationalized entrepreneurial project. Pioneering actors mobilized knowledge, markets, investment and technology legitimacy developing outside China and re-combined them with the country’s generic capabilities in export-oriented mass manufacturing. This implies that in some industries, globalization may enable a new model of industrial path creation based on bridging domestic resource gaps by directly mobilizing system resources emerging in the international networks of a global innovation system.
    Keywords: cleantech; path creation; technological innovation system; solar photovoltaics; China; transnational entrepreneurship
    JEL: F64 O33 Q55
    Date: 2016–11–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2016_029&r=cna
  5. By: Liao, Xianchun; Dogan, Eyup; Baek, Jungho
    Abstract: This paper examines the income-energy-SO2 emissions nexus by taking a corruption variable into account. To that end, the panel cointegration methods are applied to 29 Chinese provinces over 1999-2012. The authors' empirical evidence shows that an increase in the number of anticorruption cases tends to drive down SO2 emissions in China. It is also found that income growth appears to have a beneficial effect on decreasing SO2 emissions over the past two decades. Finally, energy consumption is found to increase SO2 emissions.
    Keywords: China,corruption,environment,EKC,panel,SO2
    JEL: C23 Q56
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201643&r=cna

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