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Paying to Pollute: How Carbon Offsets Actually Raised Emissions in China

Qiaoyi Chen, Nicholas Ryan, Daniel Xu, Oct 29, 2025

How do we cut carbon emissions without slowing economic growth? One way is through offset markets: markets to buy reductions in emissions from parties all over the world. Offsets are meant to incentivize projects that cut emissions. Instead of reducing emissions themselves, firms or countries can pay others to do so on their behalf. This trade in abatement can potentially lower the costs of bringing emissions down.

How Do Firms Withstand Global Economic Shocks: Evidence from Within-Firm Responses

Xiao Cen, Vyacheslav Fos, Wei Jiang, Oct 16, 2024

The article discusses that the adaptation strategies of American firms against the backdrop of China's industrial policies are as follows: Firstly, they carry out strategic shifts within the American market, avoiding direct competition and turning to upstream and downstream areas of the supply chain; secondly, they redistribute production across national borders by directly establishing production bases in China to fully leverage China's policy advantages. These strategies demonstrate the strategic flexibility and strong adaptability of American firms in the face of global economic shocks.

Quarters of Birth Matter for Girls: How Agricultural Seasonality Shapes Gender Inequality in China

Xuezheng Qin, Junjian Yi, Haochen Zhang, Oct 08, 2025

We find that people born in the fourth quarter tend to have better lifecycle outcomes than others in China. More importantly, this birth quarter effect is significantly larger for females than for males. Such a gendered pattern is likely driven by seasonal variations in household resources induced by agricultural seasonality, which may exert gender-differentiated effects on intrahousehold neonatal investment due to son preference. These findings have meaningful implications for the role of economic development in reducing gender inequality through the (gender-neutral) increase in household resources.

Money or Monitoring: What Motivates Workers in China?

Jing Cai, Sai Luo, Shing-Yi Wang, Sep 17, 2025

Higher compensation incentivizes workers to work additional hours and stay at the firm, while increased monitoring enhances work quality but also increases quitting by workers.

How Do New Firms Shape Regional Economic Growth in China?

Loren Brandt, Gueorgui Kambourov, Kjetil Storesletten, Dec 09, 2025

Barriers to entry facing new firms are a major source of regional economic differences. Removing these barriers can play an important role in economic convergence and growth.