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Do Multinationals Transfer Culture? Evidence on Female Employment in China

Heiwai Tang, Yifan Zhang, Nov 10, 2021

In our recent paper (Tang and Zhang 2021), we investigate the global diffusion of culture through multinationals. We study specifically how foreign affiliates serve as a vehicle to diffuse gender norms from their countries of origin to China. Based on Chinese manufacturing firm-level data, we find that foreign affiliates in China tend to employ proportionally more female workers than local Chinese firms within the same industry...

Competition and Quality: Evidence from High-Speed Railways and Airlines

Hanming Fang, Long Wang, Yang Yang, Aug 05, 2020

This paper investigates whether competition spurs quality improvement using the entry of Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail (HSR) as an exogenous increase in competition to affected flights to destination cities along the HSR line. We find that competition from the entry of HSR leads to significant reductions in the mean and variance of travel delays on the affected airline routes and that these improvements are mainly driven by reductions in departure delays and the duration of taxi-in time at the destination airport.

Assessing and Addressing the Coronavirus-Induced Economic Crisis: Evidence from 1.5 Billion Sales Invoice

Zhuo Chen, Pengfei Li, Li Liao, Zhengwei Wang, Aug 31, 2022

We probe the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent containment policies on business activities in China by exploiting big data on 1.5 billion sales invoices. The average drop in sales was between 23% and 35%, depending on firm size, for the 12-week period after the Wuhan lockdown.

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).

“Golden Ages”: A Tale of the Labor Markets in China and the United States

Hanming Fang, Xincheng Qiu, Dec 15, 2021

We examine the Chinese growth experience in the last three decades through the lens of the labor market, focusing on evolving cross-sectional earnings distributions. We contrast the Chinese labor market with that of the United States and provide an interesting tale of the two labor markets over the last 30 years.