A Bridge on Economic Issues between China and the World
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Picking Winners? Government Subsidies and Firm Productivity in China
Lee G. Branstetter, Guangwei Li, Mengjia Ren, Jun 21, 2023We investigate the relationship between the allocation of government subsidies and total factor productivity for Chinese listed firms.
Unequal School Enrollment Rights and Increased Inequality: The Case of Shanghai
Muyang Zhang, Jie Chen, Jan 03, 2018In Shanghai, housing entitlements with enrollment access to a good public primary school is associated with a 0.1-0.35 percentage point lower annual rental yield. This rental yield gap is the opportunity cost of securing such housing, which is within the affordability range of most middle-income families in Shanghai. This implies that, should there be no credit constraint for homeownership, children from middle-income families should have a higher likelihood of accessing better public education. We find, however, that the enrollment rights between homeowners and renters, together with the credit constraint to own a home, actually lowers the chance of children from middle-income families of attending better public schools relative to those children from families with high initial wealth. This resulting reduced intergeneration mobility exacerbates the social inequality in China.
Pushing on a String: State-Owned Enterprises and Monetary Policy Transmission in China
Peter Tillmann, Hongyi Chen, Apr 18, 2018In China, a large share of enterprises is state-owned and has preferential access to finances. This should affect the way the economy responds to changes in monetary policy. We find that a policy easing is more effective than a policy tightening – which is consistent with the PBC being able to “push on a string”.
The Fertility Consequences of Air Pollution in China
Xuwen Gao, Ran Song, Christopher Timmins, Sep 07, 2022We incorporate pollution exposure into Becker’s Quantity-Quality (Q-Q) model of fertility and evaluate how air pollution distorts individuals’ fertility behaviors in China. We find that increased pollution over time negatively affects the fertility of ethnic Han people, but does not affect the fertility of ethnic minorities. China’s One-Child Policy increased Han people’s demand for child quality (e.g., health status and education achievement), which can explain the negative association between pollution and fertility for Han people.
Boosting Pension Enrollment and Household Consumption by Example: A field Experiment on Information Provision
Chong-En Bai, Wei Chi, Tracy Xiao Liu, Chao Tang, Jian Xu, Aug 18, 2021We conduct a large-scale field experiment in the Guangdong province of China to examine the effect of informing individuals about government pension programs on their pension enrollment decisions and household consumption. Our experimental findings show the effectiveness of combining concrete and personalized information in designing informational material as well as the importance of targeting the most responsive population during information delivery.
