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The Impact of Intranational Trade Barriers on Exports: Evidence from a Nationwide VAT Rebate Reform in China

Jie Bai, Jiahua Liu, Feb 19, 2020

It is well known that various forms of non-tariff trade barriers exist within a country. Empirically, it is difficult to measure these barriers as they can take many forms. We take advantage of a nationwide VAT rebate policy reform in China as a natural experiment to identify the existence of these intranational barriers due to local protectionism and study the impact...

Trade Policy Uncertainty and Firm Innovation

Qing Liu, Hong Ma, May 12, 2021

This study proposes a novel channel through which trade liberalization may induce innovation through the reduction of trade policy uncertainties (TPU) in destination markets. To verify this link, we utilize the significant reduction of TPU engendered by China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 as a quasi-natural experiment. We find that reduction in TPU significantly encourages firms' patent applications and that firms' innovation responses to TPU reduction vary by productivity, ownership, exporting status, and the irreversibility of investment.

The Economic Impact of Distributing Financial Products on Third-Party Online Platforms

Claire Yurong Hong, Xiaomeng Lu, Jun Pan, Feb 26, 2020

The emergence of third-party online platforms in intermediating financial products has been a new and exciting development in FinTech. We find that, in China post-platform, fund flows become markedly more sensitive to fund performance, and the net flow to the top 10 percent–performing funds more than triples their pre-platform level. In response, fund managers increase their risk taking to enhance...

The Value of Bankruptcy Court in Financial Distress: Evidence from Chinese Bond Market

Bo Li, Mai Li, Songnan Li, Laura Xiaolei Liu, Mar 15, 2023

In this paper, we find that the introduction of specialized bankruptcy courts, which are run by better-trained judges and subject to less government intervention, reduces the cost of bond financing by around 10%.

Outward FDI and Domestic Input Distortions: Evidence from Chinese Firms

Cheng Chen, Wei Tian, Miaojie Yu, Sep 08, 2021

A recent study shows that domestic input distortions faced by private firms in China have generated extra incentives for those firms to invest and produce abroad. This finding helps explain an astonishing increase in China’s outward foreign direct investment (FDI) flows since the financial crisis.