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on China |
| By: | Peng Nie (Xi'an Jiaotong University); Andrew E. Clarck (Paris School of Economics); Conchita D'Ambrosio (Universite du Luxembourg); Lanlin Ding (Xi'an Jiaotong University) |
| Abstract: | We analyze 1991-2015 data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey to ask how housing affects income-related health inequalities in urban China. We use the Erreygers Index (EI) to measure the health gradient, and apply a re-centered influence function (RIF) decomposition to estimate its determinants. We find pro-rich inequalities in self- reported health between 2000 and 2015 but pro-poor inequalities in objective health between 1991 and 2015. Housing conditions serve to reduce the health gradient, and especially that for objective health. Homeownership, however, exacerbates the health gradient. Improving housing conditions thus appears to be an effective way of reducing the income-health gradient in urban China. |
| Keywords: | Income-related health inequality; housing conditions; homeownership; decomposition; urban China. |
| JEL: | D63 I10 I12 R21 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2020-524&r=all |
| By: | Emran, M. Shahe; Jiang, Hanchen; Shilpi, Forhad |
| Abstract: | We incorporate gender bias against girls in the family, the school and the labor market in a model of intergenerational persistence in schooling where parents self-finance children’s education because of credit market imperfections. Parents may underestimate a girl’s ability, expect lower returns, and assign lower weights to their welfare (“pure son preference”). The model delivers the widely-used linear conditional expectation function (CEF) under constant returns and separability, but generates an irrelevance theorem: parental bias does not affect relative mobility. With diminishing returns and complementarity, the CEF can be concave or convex, and gender bias affects both relative and absolute mobility. We test these predictions in India and China using data not subject to coresidency bias. The evidence rejects the linear CEF, both in rural and urban India, in favor of a concave relation. The girls face lower mobility irrespective of location in India when born to fathers with low schooling, but the gender gap closes when the fathers are college educated. In China, the CEF is convex for sons in urban areas, but linear in all other cases. The convexity for urban sons supports the complementarity hypothesis of Becker et al. (2018), and leads to gender divergence in relative mobility for the children of highly educated fathers. In urban China, and urban and rural India, the mechanisms are underestimation of ability of girls and unfavorable school environment. There is some evidence of pure son preference in rural India. The girls in rural China do not face bias in financial investment by parents, but they still face lower mobility when born to uneducated parents. Gender barriers in rural schools seem to be the primary mechanism, with no convincing evidence of parental bias. |
| Keywords: | Gender Bias,Intergenerational Mobility,Education,Becker-Tomes Model,Complementarity,Son Preference,India,China,Coresidency Bias |
| JEL: | I24 J62 J16 O20 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:497&r=all |
| By: | Gibbons, Stephen; Wu, Wenjie |
| Abstract: | In this article, we study the effect of airports on local economic performance that arises from better access to domestic markets in the context of China’s recent airport network expansion. We measure access through the changes in network closeness centrality implied by the contraction in potential journey times between counties within China. Our key finding is that better access—primarily due to landside distance reductions to airports—increased manufacturing productivity. The analysis is carried out on a panel of counties built from micro data on industrial firms, administrative records and census data. To mitigate endogeneity issues, we focus on a subsample of ‘incidentally’ affected counties, whose location midway between existing and new airports implies that they were neither explicitly targeted for development nor directly affected by airport operations. |
| Keywords: | airports; public infrastructure; local developments; China; ES/M010341/1; ES/ J021342/1; 715147; 724880; 41971194; 41801152 |
| JEL: | H54 O21 P25 R41 |
| Date: | 2019–06–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:101227&r=all |
| By: | Imbert, Clement (University of Warwick and JPAL); Seror, Marlon (University of Bristol, DIAL, Institut Convergences Migrations); Zylberberg, Yanos (Chinese University of Hong Kong); Zhang, Yifan (University of Bristol, CESifo, the Alan Turing Institute) |
| Abstract: | How does rural-urban migration shape urban production in developing countries? We use longitudinal data on Chinese manufacturing firms between 2001 and 2006, and exploit exogenous variation in rural-urban migration induced by agricultural price shocks for identification. We find that, when immigration increases, manufacturing production becomes more labor-intensive in the short run. In the longer run, firms innovate less, move away from capital-intensive technologies, and adopt final products that use low-skilled labor more intensively. We develop a model with endogenous technological choice, which rationalizes these findings, and we estimate the effect of migration on factor productivity and factor allocation across firms. JEL codes: D24; J23; J61; O15 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1254&r=all |
| By: | Qiu, Yun; Chen, Xi; Shi, Wei |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role of various socioeconomic factors in mediating the local and cross-city transmissions of the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) in China. We implement a machine learning approach to select instrumental variables that strongly predict virus transmission among the rich exogenous weather characteristics. Our 2SLS estimates show that the stringent quarantine, massive lockdown and other public health measures imposed in late January significantly reduced the transmission rate of COVID-19. By early February, the virus spread had been contained. While many socioeconomic factors mediate the virus spread, a robust government response since late January played a determinant role in the containment of the virus. We also demonstrate that the actual population ow from the outbreak source poses a higher risk to the destination than other factors such as geographic proximity and similarity in economic conditions. The results have rich implications for ongoing global efforts in containment of COVID-19. |
| Keywords: | 2019 novel coronavirus,transmission |
| JEL: | I18 I12 C23 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:494&r=all |
| By: | Huang, Bin (Nanjing University of Finance and Economics); Zhu, Yu (University of Dundee) |
| Abstract: | China experienced a near 5-fold increase in annual Higher Education (HE) enrolment in the decade starting in 1999. Using the China Household Finance Survey, we show that the expansion has exacerbated the large pre-existing urban-rural gap in educational attainment underpinned by the hukou (household registration) system. We then instrument years of schooling using the interaction of childhood urban hukou status and the timing of the expansion, which is analogous to a Difference-in-Differences estimator which uses rural students to control for any common time trend. The 2SLS estimates of 17% and 12% for men and women respectively are substantially larger than their OLS counterparts of 5% and 6%, both allowing for county fixed-effects. Our 2SLS results can be interpreted as a Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE), i.e. the average treatment effect of HE attendance on earnings for urban students who enrolled in HE as a result of the higher education expansion. |
| Keywords: | returns to education, 2SLS, higher education expansion, China |
| JEL: | I26 I23 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12954&r=all |
| By: | Dai, Li; Martins, Pedro S. |
| Abstract: | As China's firms upgrade their position in the quality ladder, vocational education may become more important. In this paper, we study returns to secondary vocational education in China paying attention to individual heterogeneity. We use instrumental variables based on geographical and longitudinal changes in enrolment to address the selection between the two types of education. We find that vocational education provides a wage premium vis-à-vis academic education of over 30% but which applies only for individuals at the middle of the conditional wage distribution. |
| Keywords: | Human capital,vocational education,quantile treatment effects |
| JEL: | I26 I25 J24 J31 C36 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:495&r=all |
| By: | Yi Ding; Wei Xiong; Jinfan Zhang |
| Abstract: | Using a comprehensive dataset of Chinese corporate bond issuances, we uncover substantial evidence of issuance overpricing: the yield spread of newly issued bonds at their first secondary-market trading day is on average 5.35 bps higher than the issuance spread. This overpricing is robust across subsamples of bond issuances with different credit ratings, maturities, issuance types, and issuer status. We further provide extensive evidence to support a hypothesis that competition among underwriters drives this overpricing through two specific channels—either through rebates to participants in issuance auctions or through direct auction bidding by the underwriters for themselves or their clients. |
| JEL: | G15 G23 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26815&r=all |
| By: | Bahri Yilmaz (Sabanci University, Koç University) |
| Abstract: | China and Europe are two global economic powers and essential parts of the international value chain. Companies on both sides are interested in taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the European and Chinese markets in the form of creating jobs, inducing innovation, and extending their markets. China's rapid development has benefited greatly from the capital, technology, and know-how of European companies. For EU companies, China is no longer only an important location for the production of intermediate goods and raw materials, a supplier, or sales market, but it is also considered of great importance as a research and development location. The main aim of this paper is to examine EU-China investment relations. In the first part of our work, we will focus on the overall view of the development of Chinese FDIs in the EU and vice-versa. Then, we will deal with the distribution of Chinese FDIs in the EU according to member states and economic sectors. In the last part, we will discuss the main concerns between Brussels and Beijing regarding the Chinese investment offensive on Europe and its consequences for both sides. In this respect, we focus on a new EU-level screening framework implemented mainly against Chinese investments in Europe. |
| Keywords: | China, European Union, Foreign Direct Investments, Portfolio Investments. |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:2007&r=all |
| By: | Xiaoqing Zhou |
| Abstract: | The Housing Provident Fund (HPF) is the largest public housing program in China. It was created in 1999 to enhance homeownership. This program involves a mandatory saving scheme based on labor income. Past deposits are refunded when the worker purchases a house or retires. Moreover, the program provides mortgages at subsidized rates to facilitate these home purchases. I calibrate a heterogeneous-agent life-cycle model to quantify the effects of these policies. My analysis shows that a housing program with these features is expected to raise the rate of homeownership by 8.7 percentage points and to increase the average home size by 20%. I discuss the economic mechanisms by which these outcomes are achieved and which features of the HPF program are most effective. I also consider several extensions of the model such as requiring employers to contribute to the program and allowing renters to withdraw funds from the HPF. |
| Keywords: | Public policy; Housing Provident Fund; Policy evaluation; China; Life-cycle model; Homeownership |
| JEL: | E2 E6 H3 R2 R3 |
| Date: | 2020–03–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddwp:87678&r=all |
| By: | Jin, Zhangfeng |
| Abstract: | This study examines the causal effects of welfare benefits on internal migration decisions. Using a quasi-experimental migration reform across 283 Chinese cities from 2002 to 2015, combined with a difference-in-differences setup, I show that improved welfare benefits substantially increase migration. The observed impact is more pronounced for individuals such as the young, women and medium-low-skilled workers. It is relatively smaller in destinations exposed to larger positive demand shocks, suggesting that improved welfare benefits reduce migration costs. And it persists over the long term. All these findings confirm the existence of sizable welfare magnet effects. |
| Keywords: | Welfare Magnets,Internal Migration,China,Difference-in-differences |
| JEL: | H31 J61 O15 F66 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:498&r=all |
| By: | Claudiu Albulescu (CRIEF - Centre de Recherche sur l'Intégration Economique et Financière - Université de Poitiers) |
| Abstract: | 40 days after the start of the international monitoring of COVID-19, we search for the effect of official announcements regarding new cases of infection and death ratio on the financial markets volatility index (VIX). Whereas the new cases reported in China and outside China have a mixed effect on financial volatility, the death ratio positively influences VIX, that outside China triggering a more important impact. In addition, the higher the number of affected countries, the higher the financial volatility is. |
| Keywords: | coronavirus,financial volatility,VIX,announcement effect |
| Date: | 2020–03–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02501814&r=all |