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The Long-Run Trend of Residential Investment in China

Ding Ding, Weicheng Lian, Oct 09, 2019

Residential investment has been a key growth engine for China in the last two decades. Total housing investment grew from about 4 percent of GDP in 1997 to a peak of 15 percent of GDP in 2014, with residential investment accounting for more than two-thirds of it. Our analysis indicates that structural changes in the Chinese economy that led to rebalancing toward consumption...

The Hidden Cost of Trade Liberalization: Input Tariff Shocks and Worker Health in China

Haichao Fan, Faqin Lin, Shu Lin, Jun 24, 2020

Can intermediate input trade liberalization affect worker health in a developing country like China, and if so, how? Do the impacts differ between skilled and unskilled workers? What are the welfare implications of input tariff reductions once health factors are considered? Professors Haichao Fan of Fudan University, Faqin Lin of China Agricultural University, and Shu Lin of the Chinese University of Hong Kong develop...

In Rural China, Gift-Giving Is an Increasingly Costly Competition

Erwin Bulte, Ruixin Wang, Xiaobo Zhang, May 01, 2019

Gift expenditures grow swiftly in rural China and may adversely affect people's welfare. While gift-giving helps to maintain social status and connections, gift competition may create a predicament: people must spend more and more to "keep up with the Joneses." As a result, the escalating gift expenses crowd out spending on other important consumption and become increasingly burdensome to people in rural areas, particularly to the poor.

A Tale of Tier 3 Cities

Kenneth Rogoff, Yuanchen Yang, Mar 29, 2023

This paper provides new estimates of the housing stock, construction rates, and price developments by city tier in China.

Pushing on a String: State-Owned Enterprises and Monetary Policy Transmission in China

Peter Tillmann, Hongyi Chen, Apr 18, 2018

In China, a large share of enterprises is state-owned and has preferential access to finances. This should affect the way the economy responds to changes in monetary policy. We find that a policy easing is more effective than a policy tightening – which is consistent with the PBC being able to “push on a string”.