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Exporting like China: The Determinants of Trade Status

Russell Cooper, Guan Gong, Guanliang Hu, Ping Yan, Feb 03, 2021

We study the export decision of Chinese manufacturing firms, both public and privately owned enterprises. In 2019, China’s exports of goods accounted for 13% of goods exported in the world and around 20% of China’s GDP. The importance of understanding the determinants of trade patterns in China goes beyond its national borders. Observed export decisions contradict the prediction of the standard trade model...

Does Spatial Misallocation in China’s Housing and Land Markets Drive Up Housing Prices?

Yongheng Deng, Yang Tang, Ping Wang, Jing Wu, Mar 23, 2022

We documented pervasive spatial misallocations in the housing and land markets in China. We find larger cities with more competitive land markets and strict land supply restrictions have fewer subsidies in housing sales, and consequently a higher housing price compared to its frictionless benchmark. Removing frictions brings welfare gain because more individuals live in larger cities.

Industrial Clusters, Networks, and Resilience of Firms to the Covid-19 Shock in China

Ruochen Dai, Dilip Mookherjee, Yingyue Quan, Xiaobo Zhang, Jan 06, 2021

Both entry of new firms and performance of incumbents were less adversely affected by the Covid-19 shock in Chinese counties with a greater presence of industrial clusters. To explain these results, we find evidence of the role of two specific attributes of clusters: reliance on informal hometown-based entrepreneur networks and spatial proximity to suppliers and customers.

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.

The Impact of FDI on Domestic Firm Innovation: Evidence from Foreign Investment Deregulation in China

Yan Liu, Xuan Wang, Aug 04, 2021

This paper studies the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on domestic firms’ innovation in China. Using firm level patent application records that cover all manufacturing firms with annual sales above 5M Yuan from 1998 to 2007, our results show that both the quantity and quality of domestic firms’ innovation benefit from FDI. In addition to the traditional spillover effect from FDI in the same industry, the paper emphasizes the importance of knowledge spillover...