nep-cna New Economics Papers
on China
Issue of 2020‒05‒04
three papers chosen by
Zheng Fang
Ohio State University

  1. Trade Induced Technological Change: Did Chinese Competition Increase Innovation in Europe? By Douglas L. Campbell; Karsten Mau
  2. Chinese dialects, revolutionary war & economic performance By Zhu, Junbing; Grigoriadis, Theocharis
  3. Viral Social Media Videos Can Raise Pro-Social Behaviours When an Epidemic Arises By Youting Guo; Jason Shachat; Matthew J. Walker; Lijia Wei

  1. By: Douglas L. Campbell (New Economic School); Karsten Mau (Maastricht University)
    Abstract: Bloom, Draca, and Van Reenen (2016) find that Chinese competition induced a rise in patenting, IT adoption, and TFP by 30% of the total increase in Europe in the early 2000s. We find that the average patents per firm fell by 94% for the most Chinacompeting firms in their sample, but also by 94% for non-competing firms (starting from an initially higher level), and that various intuitive controls, such as controls for sectoral trends, renders the impact on patents-per-firm insignificant. We also find that while TFP appears to be positively correlated with the rise in Chinese competition, IV estimates are inconclusive, and other measures of productivity, such as value-added per worker and profits, are not correlated. Various instrumental and proxy variable approaches also do not support a positive impact of the rise of China on European patents.
    Keywords: Patents, China, Europe, Textiles, Trade Shocks, Manufacturing
    JEL: F14 F13 L25 L60
    Date: 2019–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:abo:neswpt:w0252&r=all
  2. By: Zhu, Junbing; Grigoriadis, Theocharis
    Abstract: In this paper, we explore the effects of dialectal diversity on economic performance by drawing evidence from Chinese prefecture-level cities. Our dataset is a panel of 5-year average data over the period from 2001 to 2015 including 274 cities. We compute five indices of Chinese dialectal diversity: 1. Dialectal fractionalization; 2. Adjusted dialectal fractionalization; 3. Dialectal polarization; 4. Adjusted dialectal polarization and 5. Periphery heterogeneity. We find that dialectal fractionalization and dialectal polarization as well as periphery heterogeneity have a positive effect on both income per capita and economic growth. Adjusted dialectal fractionalization exhibits a positive effect only on the change in economic growth over time. However, adjusted dialectal polarization does not show any robust effects. Furthermore, the experience of being governed by the Chinese Communist Party during the revolutionary war inhibits the negative effects of dialectal diversity in eastern China, while it has persistent negative effects in central and north-eastern regions of the country.
    Keywords: dialectal diversity,local economic performance,communist governance
    JEL: O10 O40 P51 Z19
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:20207&r=all
  3. By: Youting Guo (School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, China); Jason Shachat (School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, China; Department of Economics and Finance, Durham University Business School, United Kingdom); Matthew J. Walker (Department of Economics and Finance, Durham University Business School, United Kingdom); Lijia Wei (School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, China)
    Abstract: At the onset of an epidemic, can viral social media videos induce the high levels of trust and pro-sociality required for a successful community response? Shortly after the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in Wuhan, China, we conducted an experiment assessing the impact of viral videos on individual preferences and pro-social behaviour. Prior to the experiment, participants viewed one of three videos culled from Chinese social media: a central government leader visiting a local hospital and supermarket, health care volunteers transiting to Wuhan, or an emotionally neutral video unrelated to the emergency. Viewing one of the first two videos leads to higher levels of prosociality and increased ambiguity aversion relative to the third video. The leadership video, however, induces lower levels of trust. Our results suggest ways to craft more effective crisis response efforts and provide insights into how the direction of information in hierarchies influences trust in community members.
    Keywords: Viral Social Media; Pro-Sociality; Risk Attitude; Health Communications; Experiment
    JEL: C93 H12 I12
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chu:wpaper:20-15&r=all

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