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Ownership and Productivity in Vertically Integrated Firms in China

Loren Brandt, Feitao Jiang, Yao Luo, Yingjun Su, May 27, 2020

This paper studies differences in the internal configuration and productivity in vertically integrated steel facilities in China using equipment-level information on inputs and output for each of the main stages in the value chain. At the facility level, we do not find statistically significant differences in productivity by ownership. This conceals important differences in the value chain: private firms outperform in pig iron...

The Impact of Corporate Taxes on Firm Innovation: Evidence from the Corporate Tax Collection Reform in China

Jing Cai, Yuyu Chen, Xuan Wang, Dec 19, 2018

We explore a tax reform on manufacturing firms in China in order to study the impact of taxes on firm innovation. The reform switched corporate income tax collection from a local to state tax bureau and reduced the effective tax rate by 10 percent. The reform only applied to firms established after January 2002, allowing us to use a regression...

Misallocation, Selection, and Productivity: A Quantitative Analysis with Panel Data from China

Tasso Adamopoulos, Loren Brandt, Jessica Leight, Diego Restuccia, Jan 05, 2022

We examine the distorting effects of China’s land institutions on aggregate agricultural productivity and other outcomes. We argue these distortions affect two key margins: (1) the allocation of resources across farmers (misallocation); and (2) the type of farmers who operate in agriculture (selection).

English Language Requirements and Educational Inequality in China

Hongbin Li, Lingsheng Meng, Kai Mu, Shaoda Wang, May 29, 2024

The introduction of the English listening test in the NCEE has exacerbated educational inequality between urban and rural areas in China, thereby affecting the college admission prospects and future income of rural students.

The Effect of Pollution and Heat on the Productivity of High-Skill Public Sector Workers in China

Matthew E. Kahn, Pei Li, May 22, 2019

The quality of governance depends on public sector worker productivity. We use micro data from China to document that judges are less productive on polluted days. We find that public sector productivity elasticities are larger than the published estimates of private sector productivity elasticities with respect to pollution.