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The Value of Childhood Vaccination in China

Hamid Reza Oskorouchi, Alfonso Sousa-Poza, David Bloom, Sep 09, 2020

Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) we estimated the effect of childhood vaccination on later-life schooling and cognitive abilities of elderly Chinese. We found that being vaccinated in childhood increases schooling by one year and improves numeracy and episodic memory scores by 6 percent on average. These encouraging results confirm the powerful and long-lasting benefits of childhood vaccination.

Innovation versus imitation: Where all that Chinese R&D is going

Michael König, Zheng (Michael) Song, Kjetil Storesletten, Fabrizio Zilibotti, Jan 26, 2022

China is aiming to become a technological innovation powerhouse by 2050, with Premier Li Keqiang recently announcing an increase in R&D investments by 7% for the next five years. But greater R&D investment is no guarantee of success. This column examines the effects of R&D investments by Chinese firms on aggregate productivity and growth.

Currency Carry Trade by Trucks: The Curious Case of China’s Massive Imports from Itself

Xuepeng Liu, Heiwai Tang, Zhi Wang, Shang-Jin Wei, Apr 13, 2022

Capital controls are common in many developing countries. With capital controls, the standard financial market transactions needed for currency carry trade are hard to implement. Yet, as long as there is a big difference between domestic and foreign interest rates, the incentive to engage in currency carry trade is present.

Gender Differences in Reactions to Failure in High-Stakes Competition: Evidence from the National College Entrance Exam Retakes

Le Kang, Ziteng Lei, Yang Song, Peng Zhang, Aug 25, 2021

We document gender differences in reactions to failure in the National College Entrance Exam, an important, high-stakes competition that solely determines college admission outcomes for almost all teenagers in China. Using unique administrative data in Ningxia Province and a regression-discontinuity design, we find that students who score just below the tier-2 university cutoff have an eight-percentage-point higher probability of retaking...

Doing Business in China: Parental Background and Government Intervention Determine Who Owns Business

Ruixue Jia, Xiaohuan Lan, Gerard Padró i Miquel, May 19, 2021

The children of cadres have a higher likelihood of owning business in China, and this relationship varies greatly with government intervention in the economy. Connections with government are likely to be the explanation behind this pattern.