Most Popular

The Impact of the China Tire Safeguard

Sunghoon Chung, Joonhyung Lee, Oct 23, 2019

This column evaluates the impact of the China tire safeguard on the US tire industry. Contrary to claims made by the US government, we find that total employment and average wages in the tire industry were unaffected by the safeguard. This result is not surprising as we find that Chinese tires have been completely diverted to other exporting countries due to the strong presence of multinational corporations in the world tire market. On the other hand, US domestic tire prices increased by up to 10% during the safeguard period...

Carry Trade with Chinese Characteristics

Yi Huang, Ugo Panizza, Richard Portes, Jun 13, 2018

International borrowing by Chinese nationals has increased rapidly over the past 10 years. Some of this borrowing seems to be motivated by carry trade activities. Regulatory arbitrage may have played a role in this trend.

Relocating or Redefined: A New Perspective on Urbanization in China

Li Gan, Qing He, Ruichao Si, Daichun Yi, Mar 18, 2020

We study the urbanization process in China during the past decade by deconstructing different sources of new urban residents. We find that around one-third of urban population growth in the past decade has consisted of redefined migrants from communities that have been reclassified from rural to urban, though they do not actually move. We further find evidence that failing to consider the number of redefined migrants and their housing behaviors leads to a high housing vacancy rate in China’s urban areas.

China’s Impact on Global Financial Markets

Isha Agarwal, Grace Weishi Gu, Eswar Prasad, Dec 18, 2019

China has been shifting the composition of its external assets from accumulation of foreign reserves toward private, nonofficial outflows. This article provides an overview of the allocation patterns of outward equity investment by Chinese institutional investors (IIs) across destination countries and sectors. In their foreign portfolios, Chinese IIs overweight sectors in which China has a comparative disadvantage (for instance, computer software), and they concentrate...

The Demand for Reverse Mortgages in China

Katja Hanewald, Hazel Bateman, Hanming Fang, Shang Wu, May 15, 2019

Reverse mortgages are financial products that allow older homeowners to live in their property and receive income for as long as they live; repayment is made from the proceeds of the property sales upon the homeowners’ death. A recent pilot program in China by Happy Life Insurance found almost no takeup of such products. We investigate whether, if reverse...