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Industrial Policy: Lessons from Shipbuilding

Panle Jia Barwick, Myrto Kalouptsidi, Nahim Bin Zahur, Dec 18, 2024

The article discusses that although China's industrial policy (IP) in the shipbuilding industry significantly increased domestic shipbuilding production and global market share, it had limited effects on improving domestic welfare and led to inefficient allocation of resources.

Bonds of Love: Patriotism and the Rise of Modern Banks

Yuchen Sun, Wanda Wang, Yuchen Xu, Sep 11, 2024

This article discusses that patriotism could be an alternative source of trust in government and financial institutions, particularly during challenging times.

High-Speed Rail and China's Electric Vehicle Adoption Miracle

Hanming Fang, Ming Li, Long Wang, Yang Yang, Mar 19, 2025

We investigate whether high-speed rail (HSR) connectivity influences electric vehicle (EV) adoption, using a quasi-natural experiment from China’s HSR expansion and several identification strategies. Our findings consistently show that, by alleviating range anxiety, the expansion of HSR can account for up to one third of the increase in EV market share and EV sales in China during our sample period from 2010 to 2023, with effects particularly pronounced in cities served by faster HSR lines. These results suggest that transportation infrastructure can play a complementary role in accelerating the transition to electric mobility.

How Do Public Pensions Affect Eldercare Mode and Son Preference? An Empirical Study on the New Rural Pension Scheme in China

Naijia Guo, Wei Huang, Ruixin Wang, Dec 11, 2024

How do public pension schemes reshape eldercare and social norms with son preference? Using variations in the timing of the New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS) across rural Chinese counties..

Input-Trade Liberalization, Female Skill Intensity, and Fertility in China

Feng Chen, Renliang Liu, Miaojie Yu, Apr 09, 2025

The interplay between trade liberalization and demographic behavior illuminates the challenges of reconciling career and family. This paper examines how gender-specific trade liberalization influences fertility, leveraging a Bartik-style shift-share instrumental variable strategy that incorporates female skill intensity into input tariff exposure. We find that input-trade liberalization significantly reduces fertility, particularly among highly educated women, private sector employees, and first-time mothers—groups experiencing the steepest career-family trade-offs. Mechanism analysis shows that enhanced labor market prospects raise the opportunity cost of childbearing, delaying or reducing family formation. These findings underscore the socioeconomic implications of trade policy for demographic trends.