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on China |
| By: | Alain de Janvry; Guojun He; Elisabeth Sadoulet; Shaoda Wang; Qiong Zhang |
| Abstract: | Subjective performance evaluation is widely used by firms and governments to provide work incentives. However, delegating evaluation power to local leadership could induce influence activities: employees might devote too much effort to impressing/pleasing their evaluator, relative to working toward the goals of the organization itself. We conduct a large-scale randomized field experiment among Chinese local civil servants to study the existence and implications of influence activities. We find that civil servants do engage in evaluator-specific influence to affect evaluation outcomes, partly in the form of reallocating work efforts toward job tasks that are more important and observable to the evaluator. Importantly, we show that introducing uncertainty about the evaluator’s identity discourages evaluator-specific influence activities and improves bureaucratic work performance. |
| JEL: | D73 M12 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30621&r=cna |
| By: | Kung, James Kai-sing; Özak, Ömer (Southern Methodist University); Putterman, Louis; Shi, Shuang |
| Abstract: | We propose and test empirically a theory describing the endogenous formation and persistence of mega-states, using China as an example. We suggest that the relative timing of the emergence of agricultural societies, and their distance from each other, set off a race between their autochthonous state-building projects, which determines their extent and persistence. Using a novel dataset describing the historical presence of Chinese states, prehistoric development, the diffusion of agriculture, and migratory distance across 1-degree x 1-degree grid cells in eastern Asia, we find that cells that adopted agriculture earlier and were close to Erlitou -- the earliest political center in eastern Asia -- remained under Chinese control for longer and continue to be a part of China today. By contrast, cells that adopted agriculture early and were located further from Erlitou developed into independent states, as agriculture provided the fertile ground for state-formation, while isolation provided time for them to develop and confront the expanding Chinese empire. Our study sheds important light on why eastern Asia kept reproducing a mega-state in the area that became China and on the determinants of its borders with other states. |
| Date: | 2022–06–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:g8mye&r=cna |
| By: | Badi H. Baltagi; Ying Deng; Jing Li; Zhenlin Yang |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of urban density, city government efficiency, and medical resources on COVID-19 infection and death outcomes in China. We adopt a simultaneous spatial dynamic panel data model to account for (i) the simultaneity of infection and death outcomes, (ii) the spatial pattern of the transmission, (iii) the inter-temporal dynamics of the disease, and (iv) the unobserved city- and time-specific effects. We find that, while population density increases the level of infections, government efficiency significantly mitigates the negative impact of urban density. We also find that the availability of medical resources improves public health outcomes conditional on lagged infections. Moreover, there exists significant heterogeneity at different phases of the epidemiological cycle. |
| Keywords: | Covid-19, urban density, government efficiency, cities |
| JEL: | R10 R50 I18 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10037&r=cna |
| By: | Wang, Xize (National University of Singapore); Liu, Tao |
| Abstract: | Although residential crowding has many well-being implications, its connection to mental health is yet to be widely examined. Using survey data from 1613 residents in Beijing, China, we find that living in a crowded place – measured by both square metres per person and persons per bedroom – is significantly associated with a higher risk of depression. We test for the mechanisms of such associations and find that the residential crowding–depression link arises through increased living space-specific stress rather than increased life stress. We also identify the following subgroups that have relatively stronger residential crowding–depression associations: females, those living with children, those not living with parents, and those living in non-market housing units. Our findings show that inequality in living space among urban residents not only is an important social justice issue but also has health implications. |
| Date: | 2022–07–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:cy8hz&r=cna |
| By: | Jin Cao; Valeriya Dinger; Ragnar E. Juelsrud; Karolis Liaudinskas |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine how a trade conflict’s impact on the real economy can be amplified by financial intermediaries. After the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, China in practice banned imports of Norwegian salmon. The ban was an unexpected trade shock to the Norwegian salmon industry. Using bank balance sheet and credit register data, we trace how this trade shock affected the lending behavior of banks highly exposed to the salmon industry when the shock occurred. We find that, in the years following the trade shock, highly exposed banks cut back lending to non-salmon firms and households by 3-6 percent more than other banks. Furthermore, we find that the reduction in lending was not driven by the erosion of bank capital, but rather by the shift in expectations about the performance of loans to salmon producers, which drove highly exposed banks to increase their loan loss provisions and reduce risk-taking. |
| Keywords: | trade shock, bank lending channel, expectation shock |
| JEL: | F14 G21 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10036&r=cna |
| By: | Guo, Liwen; Cheng, Zhiming; Tani, Massimiliano; Cook, Sarah; Zhao, Jiaqi; Chen, Xi |
| Abstract: | We examine the causal effect of air pollution on an individual's propensity for entrepreneurship in China. Our preferred model, which employs an instrumental variable approach to address endogeneity arising from sorting into entrepreneurship and locational choices, suggests that exposure to higher intensity of air pollution lowers one's proclivity for entrepreneurship. We also find that industrial activity and self-efficacy mediate the relationship between air pollution and entrepreneurship. In addition, education and gender further moderate the relationship between air pollution and self-efficacy. In particular, air pollution negatively affects self-efficacy among the less-educated and females. |
| Keywords: | Air pollution,Entrepreneurship,China |
| JEL: | J24 L26 Q53 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1196&r=cna |
| By: | Lin, Zhuoer; Ba, Fang; Allore, Heather; Liu, Gordon G.; Chen, Xi |
| Abstract: | Dementia leads public health issue worldwide. China has the largest population of adults living with dementia in the world, imposing increasing burdens on the public health and healthcare systems. Despite improved access to health services, inadequate and uneven dementia management remains common. We document the provincial-level geographic patterns in healthcare utilization, outcomes, and costs for patients hospitalized for dementia in China. Regional patterns demonstrate gaps in equity and efficiency of dementia care and management for dementia patients. Health policy and practices should consider geographic disparities in disease burden and healthcare provision to promote equitable allocation of resources for dementia care throughout China. |
| Keywords: | Dementia,Health Care,Hospitalization,Inpatient Costs,In-hospital Mortality,Geographic Variation |
| JEL: | J14 I11 I14 I18 H75 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1193&r=cna |
| By: | Kalkschmied, Katja |
| Abstract: | The Caucasus region has experienced an increasing inflow of Chinese official development finance in the last twenty years. The inflow accelerated after the countries of the Caucasus region became participants in the Belt and Road Initiative. Chinese finance into Eurasia aims to build energy and economic corridors linking the European and Asian continents. Natural resource endowments and the geographic location between the two continents are favorable for these ambitions, and so are recent geopolitical developments. The war between Russia and Ukraine revokes new interest in the Middle Corridor energy and goods transportation routes running via the Caspian Sea and the Southern Caucasus. Much is to win from the TransCaucasus corridors for China, the European Union, and the Southern Caucasus countries but also for Kazakhstan and Turkey. Much is to lose also. This article infers on Chinese endeavors and lending specifics in the Caucasus region by looking at project-level data from the years 2000-20017. It concludes that the Southern Caucasus countries need to strategically manage the development cooperation offers from China and other powers to make the new interest in the region beneficial for them. This requires taking measures to ensure that foreign-financed projects meet domestic needs and interests and become effective for domestic development. |
| Keywords: | Development finance,Caucasus,China,BRI |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:opodis:202211&r=cna |
| By: | Carol H. Shiue; Wolfgang Keller |
| Abstract: | In the marriage market, families make investments on behalf of their young so that they are able to form a household with their preferred partner. We analyze marriage markets in a central region of China between about 1300 and 1850 through the lens of a model of marriage matching and intergenerational transmission of inequality. For both female and male children, marriage patterns are far from being random, instead, there is positive assortative matching. This is present for the entire income distribution, though at the highest levels matching on income is thirty times of what it is at low income levels. Over the sample period the degree of matching falls, and more so for young females, although from a lower level than young males. Lower marriage matching in the 18th and 19th centuries is accompanied by lower inequality across households, yielding a positive time series correlation between sorting and inequality. There are also intergenerational matching returns. Children of parents who are strongly matched tend to be able to marry into relatively high-income in-law families, conditional on the incomes in both the father's and the mother's families. Matching in the parent generation pays off more strongly for male than for female children. Second, marriage matching by the parents raises child income. Thus, parental marriage investments affect the income distribution from one generation to the next. Finally, we show that intergenerational matching returns have declined over the sample period, further strengthening evidence that incentives for parental marriage investments in China became weaker over time. |
| JEL: | J12 J16 N30 N45 |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30625&r=cna |
| By: | Schaefer, Kerstin |
| Abstract: | As technical standards are an important part of China's industrial transformation towards an innovation-driven economy, Chinese organizations have started to deploy substantial resources in recent years to take on a leading role in international ICT standardization. However, many Chinese organizations experience, similar to other latecomers to standardization, limited success when contributing to standardization processes, a phenomenon also referred to as the standardization gap. The literature on standardization to date has paid little attention to how Chinese latecomers enter and influence international standardization processes that have traditionally been shaped by organizations from industrialized countries. We therefore analyze the country-of-origin effect as well as factors such as experience and collaboration for successful contributions of Chinese organizations to standards. Using data from the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and binary logistic regression analysis, we are able to show that, in our sample, contributions from Chinese latecomers are significantly less likely to be accepted than those from more established actors from industrialized economies. Moreover, our findings indicate that experience is closely associated with success in international ICT standardization, but not moderated by national origin. Therefore, Chinese latecomers might not be able to catch up if they move at the same pace as established competitors. They need to find a way to leapfrog extensive development steps, narrow the standardization capability gap, and thus strengthen their participation and influence. One way to do so might be through strategic collaboration, as our results suggest that Chinese organizations benefit more from collaborating with organizations from more established regions than vice versa, on which we call for further research to establish the causal mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | Elsevier deal |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2022–10–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:116987&r=cna |
| By: | Artecona, Raquel; Perrotti, Daniel E.; Welslau, Lennard |
| Abstract: | This paper uses an augmented gravity trade model to examine the impact of Chinese exports to the United States on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) exports to the same market over the last two decades. The analysis relies on a sample of 33 LAC countries and trade data disaggregated to the 10- digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) level. The results show that the impact of Chinese exports on US imports from LAC is negative and statistically significant across model specifications and levels of aggregation in the trade data. In addition, the model suggests that after accounting for such export competition, Free Trade Agreements with the United States, on average, increased imports from LAC countries by up to 1.5 percent. That is, countries with a trade agreement with the US have an advantage over those without, particularly in the manufacturing sector. |
| Keywords: | COMERCIO INTERNACIONAL, POLITICA COMERCIAL, RELACIONES ECONOMICAS INTERNACIONALES, EXPORTACIONES, COMPETENCIA, ESTADISTICAS COMERCIALES, INTERNATIONAL TRADE, TRADE POLICY, INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC RELATIONS, EXPORTS, COMPETITION, TRADE STATISTICS |
| Date: | 2022–10–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecr:col034:48356&r=cna |
| By: | Georgios Tsiachtsiras (University of Bristol and University of Bath, United Kingdom.); Deyun Yin (School of Economics and Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China.); Ernest Miguelez (Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, BSE, UMR 6060, Avenue Léon Duguit, 33608 Pessac, France and AQR-IREA, University of Barcelona, Spain.); Rosina Moreno (AQR-IREA, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the e?ect of the High Speed Rail (HSR) network expansion on local innovation in China during the period 2008-2016. Using exogenous variation arising from a novel instrument - courier’s stations during the Ming dynasty, we ?nd solid evidence that the opening of a HSR station increases cities’ innovation activity. We also explore the role of inter-city technology di?usion as being behind the surge of local innovation. To do it, we compute least-cost paths between city-pairs, over time, based on the opening and speed of each HSR line, and obtain that an increase in a city’s connectivity to other cities specialized in a speci?c technological ?eld, through the HSR network, increases the probability for the city to specialize in that same technological ?eld. We interpret it as evidence of knowledge di?usion. |
| Keywords: | High speed rail, Innovation, Technology Di?usion, Patents, Specialization. JEL classification: R40, O18, O30, O33. |
| Date: | 2022–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:202220&r=cna |
| By: | Wang, Xize (National University of Singapore); Liu, Tao |
| Abstract: | As a vital aspect of individual’s quality of life, mental health has been included as an important component of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. This study focuses on a specific aspect of mental health: depression, and examines its relationship with commute patterns. Using survey data from 1,528 residents in Beijing, China, we find that every 10 additional minutes of commute time is associated with 1.1% higher probability of depression. We test for the mechanisms of the commute-depression link and find that commute is associated with depression as a direct stressor rather than triggering higher work stress. When decomposing commute time into mode-specific time, we found that time on mopeds/motorcycles has the strongest association with depression. Moreover, the commute-depression associations are stronger for older workers and blue-collar workers. Hence, policies that could reduce commute time, encourage work from home, improve job-housing balance or increase motorcyclists’ safety would help promote mental health. |
| Date: | 2022–06–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:dj8av&r=cna |
| By: | Röyskö, Aino; Simola, Heli |
| Abstract: | This brief considers the role of East Asian economies in Russia's technology imports. The EU, US and UK have set strict sanctions and export restrictions on Russia in response to the war in Ukraine, while responses from East Asian economies have been mixed. By restricting exports of technology production equipment and inputs, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore have substantially hindered the availability of certain technology products in Russia. China and most other emerging economies in East Asia have not imposed sanctions on Russia and thus could potentially provide substitutes for Russia for some technology imports restricted by sanctions. There is little evidence so far, however, of any such shift occurring. |
| Keywords: | Russia,trade,East Asia,sanctions,technology imports |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bofitb:62022&r=cna |