Ray of Hope? The Rise of Solar Energy in China
Ignacio Banares-Sanchez, Robin Burgess, Dávid László, Pol Simpson, John Van Reenen, Yifan Wang, Mar 25,
2026
China’s solar subsidies triggered innovation and learning-by-doing that dramatically lowered global solar costs while generating domestic economic gains large enough to outweigh the subsidy costs, showing that green industrial policy can simultaneously boost growth and help fight climate change.
Trading Suspensions, Liquidity, and Information Acquisition in the Chinese Stock Market
Clemens Sialm, David X. Xu, Mar 18,
2026
We study the implications of mutual fund liquidity creation by examining frequent trading suspensions in China, which eliminate market liquidity in affected stocks and cause significant mispricing of mutual funds due to inaccurate valuations of their illiquid holdings...
Robots as Guardians: How Automation Has Made Chinese Workplaces Safer
Wei Luo, Lixin Tang, Yaxin Yang, Xianqiang Zou, Feb 03,
2026
Industrial robots are often discussed primarily in terms of their employment effects. New evidence from China shows that automation has also delivered substantial improvements in workplace safety, with sharp reductions in accidents and fatalities.
From Rural Schools to City Factories: Assessing the Quality of Chinese Rural Schools
Eric A. Hanushek, Le Kang, Xueying Li, Lei Zhang, Jan 21,
2026
Rural school quality is low and varies significantly across provinces. We estimate provincial variations in school quality from the labor market returns to years of schooling of interprovincial rural migrants educated in different home provinces but working in the same urban labor market. School quality is higher and provincial variation is lower for younger cohorts, indicating at least partial effectiveness of recent policies aimed at improving the quality of rural schools.