Digital Commons Network^™

Micro-Data Evidence On Family Size And Chinese Household Saving Rates, Steven Lugauer, Jinlan Ni, Zichao Yin

Economics Faculty Publications

This paper examines the impact of family size on household saving. We first study a theoretical life-cycle model that includes finite lifetimes and saving for retirement and in which parents care about the consumption by their dependent children. The model implies a negative relationship between the number of dependent children in the family and the household saving rate. Then, we test the model's implications using new survey data on household finances in China. We use the differential enforcement of the one-child policy across counties to address the possible endogeneity between household saving and fertility decisions in a two-stage …

Love, Money, And Parental Goods: Does Parental Matchmaking Matter?, Fali Huang, Ginger Zhe Xu, Lixin Colin Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

While parental matchmaking has been widespread throughout history and across countries, we know little about the relationship between parental matchmaking and marriage outcomes. Does parental involvement in matchmaking help ensure their needs are better taken care of by married children? This paper finds supportive evidence using a survey of Chinese couples. In particular, parental involvement in matchmaking is associated with having a more submissive wife, a greater number of children, a higher likelihood of having any male children, and a stronger belief of the husband in providing old age support to his parents. These benefits, however, are achieved at the …

Does China’S Trade Defy Cultural Barriers?, Roger White, Bedassa Tadesse, Huang Zhongwen

Economics

Using annual data for China and 88 trading partners that span the period 1995–2011, we estimate whether cross-societal cultural differences influence China’s external trade flows. Our results, obtained from the estimation of a series of multi-level mixed effect random intercepts and coefficients models, indicate that China’s aggregate exports and imports are largely unaffected by the cultural distance between China and its trading partners. Examination of disaggregate trade measures and consideration of the underlying dimensions of our composite cultural distance variable produces a largely similar result. Taken collectively, our results suggest that China’s trade is less affected by cultural distance than …

The Paradox Of Power: Principal-Agent Problems And Fiscal Capacity In Absolutist Regimes, Debin Ma, Jared Rubin

ESI Working Papers

Tax extraction in Qing China was low relative to Western Europe. It is not obvious why: China was much more absolutist and had stronger rights over property and people. Why did the Chinese not convert their absolute power into revenue? We propose a model, supported by historical evidence, which suggests that i) the center could not ask its tax collecting agents to levy high taxes because it would incentivize agents to overtax the peasantry; ii) the center could not pay agents high wages in return for high taxes because the center had no mechanism to commit to refrain from confiscating …

Determinants Of Urban Land Supply In China: How Do Political Factors Matter?, Wen-Tai Hsu, Xiaolu Li, Yang Tang, Jing Wu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper explores two political factors for their potential effects on urban land supply in China: corruption, and competition for promotion. We find that standard urban economic predictions hold in the sense that both population and income increases are strongly significant determinants for the increase in urban land supply. Conditional on these demand-side factors, we find that the usage of two-stage auctions (as a proxy for corruption) is highly correlated with the increase in land supply. The corruption effects are strongest for commercial land, followed by residential land and then industrial land. To shed light on the competition motives among …

Determinants Of Urban Land Supply In People's Republic Of China: How Do Political Factors Matter?, Wen-Tai Hsu, Xiaolu Li, Yang Tang, Jing Wu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper explores whether and how corruption and competition-for-promotion motives affect urban land supply in the People's Republic of China. Conditional on demand-side factors, we find that corruption is highly correlated with an increase in land supply. The corruption effects are strongest for commercial land, followed by residential land, and then industrial land. To shed light on the competition motives among prefectural leaders, we examine how the number of years in office affects land supply and distinguish among different hypotheses. Our empirical results show robust rising trends in land sales. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that among prefectural …

2017-12 Changing Trends In China’S Inequality: Key Issues And Main Findings, Terry Sicular, Shi Li, Ximing Yue, Hiroshi Sato

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-21 The Redistributive Role Of Government Social Security Transfers On Inequality In China, Meng Cai, Ximing Yue

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-14 China's Emerging Global Middle Class, Bjorn Gustafsson, Terry Sicular, Xiuna Yang

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-23 China's Urban Gender Wage Gap: A New Direction?, Jin Song, Terry Sicular, Bjorn Gustafsson

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-16 Public Policy And Long-Term Trends In Inequality In Rural China, 1988-2013, Hisatoshi Hoken, Hiroshi Sato

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-15 The Increasing Inequality Of Wealth In China, 2002-2013, John Knight, Shi Li, Haiyuan Wan

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-13 Overview: Incomes And Inequality In China, 2007-2013, Chuliang Luo, Terry Sicular, Shi Li

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-22 Social Policy Reforms And Economic Distances In China, 2002-2013, Qin Gao, Sui Yang, Fuhua Zhai, Yake Wang

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-20 Income And Poverty Gaps Between Han And Ethnic Minorities In Rural China, 2002 And 2013, Xiaomin Liu, Lidan Lu

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-19 Consumption Inequality In Urban China, 1995-2013, Qingjie Xia, Shi Li, Lina Song

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

2017-18 Unequal Growth: How Household Incomes And Poverty In Urban China Have Developed Since 1988, With An Emphasis On The Period From 2007 To 2013, Bjorn Gustafsson, Sai Ding

Centre for Human Capital and Productivity. CHCP Working Papers

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Marketization On Entrepreneurship In China: Recent Evidence, Yang Zhou, Joshua C. Hall

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

While marketization has been linked to provincial-level economic growth in China, how marketization leads to growth has not been explored. We hypothesize that marketization creates an environment that encourages entrepreneurship, which manifests itself in economic growth. While this argument is not new, it has not been explored in the Chinese context. We fill this gap by empirically testing the relationship between marketization and measures of entrepreneurship across Chinese provinces. Our primary measures of entrepreneurship are level changes in the number of “private enterprises” and “self-employed individuals”. We find that higher levels of marketization are positively related to higher levels of …

Economic Freedom And Government Efficiency: Recent Evidence From China, Shaoment Jia, Yang Zhou

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

We investigate the effects of economic freedom (marketization) on governance efficiency defined with the newest provincial level economic indicator data (NBSC, 2017) and economic freedom data (Fan et al., 2017) from 2008 to 2014 in China. With two different measures, the results suggest that economic freedom is positively correlated with governance efficiency. Moreover, the liberalization and marketization progress in the “factors market” is the single most significant area for both governance efficiency measures, while other areas like “market intermediary & legal system” have no significant effects.

Social Health Insurance Coverage And Financial Protection Among Rural-To-Urban Internal Migrants In China: Evidence From A Nationally Representative Cross-Sectional Study, Wen Chen, Qi Zhang, Andre M. N. Renzaho, Fangjing Zhou, Hui Zhang, Li Ling

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: Migrants are a vulnerable population and could experience various challenges and barriers to accessing health insurance. Health insurance coverage protects migrants from financial loss related to illness and death. We assessed social health insurance (SHI) coverage and its financial protection effect among rural-to-urban internal migrants (IMs) in China.

METHODS: Data from the '2014 National Internal Migrant Dynamic Monitoring Survey' were used. We categorised 170 904 rural-to-urban IMs according to their SHI status, namely uninsured by SHI, insured by the rural SHI scheme (new rural cooperative medical scheme (NCMS)) or the urban SHI schemes (urban employee-based basic medical insurance (UEBMI)/urban …

Assessment Of And Outlook On China's Corruption And Anticorruption Campaigns: Stagnation In The Authoritarian Trap, Shaomin Li

Management Faculty Publications

Since the beginning of China's economic reform in the late 1970s, corruption has been progressing alongside of economic growth. In 2012, when Xi Jinping took power, he waged the largest and longest anticorruption campaign known in the history of the Chinese Communist Party. This study provides an assessment on his campaign and projects an outlook on the future of corruption and anticorruption in China. The author argues that China will enter into an "authoritarian trap," in which the authoritarian power enables the state to effectively carry out the economic reform and achieve economic growth, while suppressing the demand for the …