Child labour and academic achievement: Evidence from Gansu Province in China

This paper considers the relationship between child labour and a child's academic achievement in rural China. Using a unique longitudinal, multi-level survey, the Gansu Survey of Children and Families (GSCF) which was enrolled in the Gansu province, I use a quasi-maximum likelihood estimation (QMLE) and find that more than 1 h of child labour in the previous time period has a negative effect on a child's academic achievement in the subsequent period after controlling for child talent. I also show that previous academic achievement has no strong significant effect on current child labour by applying a logistic model. Based on the data, the fact that those effects are not very big or not significant suggests that child labour in China is not a big problem when compared with other developing countries (Bacolod & Ranjan 2008).     

School starting age and academic achievement: Evidence from China's junior high schools

This paper examines the effect of school starting age on the academic achievement of junior high school students using the newly available data from the China Education Panel Survey. Regression discontinuity design estimation based on an exogenous entrance cutoff date indicates that a one-year delay is associated with a 0.303 decrease in standard deviations of cognitive scores. However, this negative effect is caused by human capital accumulation prior to primary school entry.     

Head teachers,peer effects,and student achievement

Teachers can influence student achievement, not only directly, but also indirectly via peer effects. Based on a unique data set from a Chinese middle school (grades 7–9), this paper uses a student fixed-effects model to estimate peer effects for four core subjects (Chinese, Math, English, and Science) at the level of the class cohorts studying each subject. We find negative peer effects that are significant from both an economic and a statistical perspective. However, in the subjects taught by head teachers, who have more tools to manage students than do regular teachers, such negative peer effects disappear. Further investigation suggests that head teachers generate positive peer effects that override the negative ones.     

Valuing research output: Evidence from a Chinese university

Exploring the economic value of research output is a crucial but neglected issue and thus is worth gaining attention. Using data concerning the promotion from a medium-ranked university in China during 2011–2019, this paper proposes a novel methodology that combines a regression discontinuity design and the theory of “Value of a Statistical Life” to quantify the monetary value of research output. Our findings suggest that each unit of research score is worth $467 for a promotion to associate professor and $515 for full professors. Based on the rate for full professors, the computed economic values for a publication in ordinary journals, famous journals, and top journals are around $1,538, $5,154, and $20,615, respectively. Additionally, the economic value of a book publication is approximately $7,723. These research outputs are significantly undervalued compared to the faculty's own total income, the income of peers in similar sectors, or the income of peers from other countries' higher education. Our analysis provides not only insights for incentive system reform for Chinese higher education but also a methodology that can be universally applicable to any higher institutions that use the scoring system or set implicit research standards in the promotion and merit process.     

The multilevel analysis of students’ achievement: Evidence from Morocco

This paper, using multi‐level modelling, sought to highlight student‐level and school‐level characteristics that differentiate the academic performance in mathematics from a sample of 6080 Moroccan secondary students who participated in the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) test. The results indicated little evidence to support the Heyneman–Loxley effect, as they showed that individual and family characteristics were the strongest determinants of achievement compared to the schools’ factors. Students scored higher when they were boys, were younger, were more self‐confident, were more ambitious, and felt secure in school. They also scored higher when they came from families with a higher socioeconomic status, particularly when their parents were able to ensure the availability of learning resources, and were of a higher level of education. Finally, schools were matter for their pupil achievement mainly through the location channel, as urban pupils outperformed rural ones. However, the other school characteristics, including those related to teachers, played a negative, or at best neutral, role in pupil outcomes. These findings have important public policy implications. Redesigning education policy towards improving the school's environment and fostering inclusivity would be needed to enhance learning performance of Moroccan students.     

The direct and indirect effects of infrastructure on firm productivity: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing

This paper attempts to distinguish and estimate the direct and indirect effects of infrastructure on firm productivity. The latter arises from the infrastructure-agglomeration link and has been largely overlooked in the literature on infrastructure. An analytical framework is then proposed to estimate both effects. Finally, empirical results are obtained using large-scale firm-level survey data from China. Major findings include: (1) all the three kinds of infrastructure–road, telecommunication servers and cable–are found to directly promote firm productivity; (2) they also exert a positive indirect effect on firm productivity through the agglomeration channel; and (3) the empirical results are robust to different agglomeration indicators and different subsamples.     

Exposure to socially influential peer parents: Evidence from cadre parents in China

Parents with a special social status generate spillover effects to other parents and children. Because cadres (government officials) in China have a broad influence on resource allocation, their presence elicits responses from surrounding parents and students. Exploiting random classroom assignments in Chinese middle schools, we find that increased exposure to classmates' cadre parents raises parents' attention to their children's friendships and guidance over schoolwork. We also find evidence suggesting that parental changes raise the child's test scores. The findings highlight parental adjustments as a mediator of the external influence of peer parents on children.     

Commercialization and mission drift: Evidence from a large Chinese microfinance institution

Front-line loan officers of microfinance institutions (MFIs) are important in acquiring information on potential borrowers and selecting them in accordance with the MFI's mission. We use a unique data set on loan officers and their loan portfolios from China's largest NGO microfinance institution to test whether officers' personal characteristics affect the size and quality of their loans. We study a period in which the institution shifted from reliance on government donations and subsidies to commercial sources of funding. Imposing more commercial incentives on loan officers could affect how they balance potentially competing objectives to serve the poor and pursue profitability. We find that loan officers who were formerly farmers or worked in local government were better able to maintain lending to poorer borrowers, without incurring substantially lower repayment rates on their loans. In short, it appears that the career backgrounds of loan officers did play a role in preventing mission drift.     

Large-scale school meal programs and student health: Evidence from rural China

Reducing urban-rural gaps in child health is one of the most difficult challenges faced by many countries. This paper evaluates the impact of a large-scale school meal program in rural China on the health and nutritional status of students aged 6–16 in compulsory education. We use data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey corresponding to four pre-treatment years (2004, 2006, 2009, and 2011) and one post-treatment year (2015) and find that program participation is, on average, associated with a higher child height-for-age. The impacts are larger among students in a better health condition but small or not significant among the most disadvantaged. We do not observe heterogeneous effects across several individual and household characteristics. We also find positive but not significant effects on Body Mass Index-for-age and weight-for-age. The results suggest that NIP partially improved students' health over the first years of implementation, but more support is needed to achieve broader impacts that effectively reach all vulnerable students.     

Double-edged effects of the technology gap and technology spillovers: Evidence from the Chinese industrial sector

This paper proposes a new insight that the technology gap plays double-edged roles in the technology spillovers of foreign direct investment (FDI) through two channels, technology choice set and technology absorptive capability. Applying a multiple-threshold model, we examine the non-linear relationship between the technology gap and technology spillovers based on the provincial panel data of the Chinese industrial sector during 1993–2006. The empirical results support the hypothesis of two thresholds, which are 0.3071 and 0.5214 in terms of the technology gap respectively. The estimated thresholds indicate the sufficient absorptive capability is the premise for FDI technology spillovers. Moreover, it implies the marginal decrease of FDI technology spillover effects in the long run.     

Gender differences in performance-based pay: Evidence from a Chinese University

We examined gender differences in performance-based pay in an institute of a top Chinese university, to provide insight into the gender earnings gap. We found that male professors earned more from research and less from teaching than did comparable female professors even though male and female professors showed no statistically significant difference in the total performance-based pay. Given the piece rate nature of bonuses in the institute and one's tendency to invest more time in areas where one has comparative advantages to maximize the total income, the study results lead to the conclusion that male professors displayed comparative advantage in research while female professors exhibited comparative advantage in teaching. The conclusion is corroborated by analyses of time allocation, and number of papers published as first author and as co-author.     

Union and Debt: Evidence from Chinese Private Firms

Do unions really matter in China? Using a dataset containing more than 110 thousand Chinese private manufacturing firms, this paper is the first attempt to examine how unions' bargaining power affects firms' capital structures. We find that: (1) the firms' debt levels are often positively associated with their unions' bargaining powers; (2) when a firm is in financial distress, the management is more likely to issue more debt to strengthen its bargaining power against the union and increase its residual income; (3) compared with long-term debt, short-term debt is a better option for the management to increase its bargaining power and residual income. Our research indicates that the unions of private Chinese firms are an important policy instrument for the management rather than useless decorations, which provides valuable insights for us to understand the employee–employer relations and firms' capital structures in emerging economies.     

Extreme heat and exports: Evidence from Chinese exporters

Does extreme heat have causal effects on exports? If so, how do the effects evolve? This paper exploits monthly fluctuations in the number of extremely hot days within a city to identify their effects on firm-level exports in that city. We find robust evidence that hot temperatures have persistent adverse effects on firm-level exports. Specifically, export losses gradually arise following a heat shock, beginning from an undetectable impact and eventually accumulating to a large and significant impact. An additional >30 °C day in a month could generate cumulative losses up to 0.83% of a firm's annual exports twenty-four months later. The negative effects of extreme heat are mainly through its adverse impacts on the firm's investment, capital, and production output. Capital-intensive sectors and FDI-related enterprises are among the most affected by high temperatures. Our findings support the “no-recovery” hypothesis after weather extremes and have implications for future climate change policies.     

流动性与地理因素：基于中国上市公司的实证研究

针对地理因素研究了我国股市的流动性特征.首先按GDP排名把31个省市划分成经济发展程度有差异的两类,在此基础上构建虚拟变量代表地理因素,分别把交易量、换手率和流动性度量指标作为被解释变量,研究上市公司股票流动性和地理因素之间相关性的存在性以及其显著程度.研究结果表明地理因素对交易量没有影响,对换手率和流动性有一定的影响,"发展中"省市公司在流动性方面相对于"发达"省市公司表现出明显的差异.     

Political Control and Economic Inequality: Evidence from Chinese Cities

This paper explores the consequence of political control on intra-city economic inequality. Utilizing the unique political institution with mass cadre transfers and household survey data from 81 Chinese cities in 2010, 2012, and 2014, we find that cities with a “local” leader enjoy an almost 6% reduction in expenditure inequality, and the gap is especially narrowed in the lower income families. The reduction is attributed to larger amount of targeted transfers to low-income households. This paper is among the first to empirically support the argument supporting local residence duration for office holding in public sectors, and also contributes to understanding the political economy of social welfare programs as well as campaigns in inequality reduction.     

Policy choice and economic growth under factional politics: Evidence from a Chinese Province

This paper investigates how political elites make policy choices that have bearing on an authoritarian regime's economy, from the perspective of factional politics. A local leader makes policies primarily to secure his political survival, which is contingent on the support from either his higher-level patrons or his local grassroots constituents. Using a simple model, we show that a local politician with close factional ties to high-level patrons will invest more in sending loyalty signals to the latter to receive their protections, while a poorly-connected politician will make more effort to spur a broad-based economic growth that economically benefits his local constituents. Using a unique county level data on the factional politics of Zhejiang Province, China, we find that counties with weaker (closer) factional ties have lower (higher) tax burdens per capita, while spending more (less) on local public goods provision. The results are stable after various robustness tests.     

The evolution of educational inequalities through secondary school: Evidence from a South African panel study

Schooling outcomes in South Africa are characterised by significant inequalities on the basis of race and socio-economic status. This paper reports on findings from a unique panel dataset that follows individuals who participated in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study in 2002 as Grade 8 students through to their secondary school-leaving examination (known as ‘matric’) in Grade 12. The paper investigates the extent to which secondary schools differ in converting Grade 8 achievement into matric outcomes. Achievement in Grade 8 is strongly predictive of survival to matric, passing matric and performance in matric. Many students had extremely weak mathematical proficiency in Grade 8 and yet decided to take matric mathematics, only to fail the subject. Increasing the number of matric mathematics passes is a strong policy imperative. Our analysis suggests that the way to achieve this is to improve mathematics learning at earlier stages of the school programme rather than through indiscriminate mathematics participation in matric.     

Corruption as a natural resource curse: Evidence from the Chinese coal mining

Research on the natural resource curse has been extended to the impact of natural resource abundance/dependence on institutional or governance quality, which includes corruption. This study investigates the impact of coal mining on local corruption in China. The findings show a positive association between coal output and corruption at the prefectural Party Secretary's level. Using the spatial band of 200 km radius and 100 km radius of individual coalmines aggregated at prefecture level as an instrumental variable, we establish the causality running from coal output to local corruption. A robustness check using court verdicts of all bribery cases in China indicate the same result, i.e., coal mining is conducive to local corruption at all levels. Furthermore, we show that the mechanism is not through demand side, i.e., corruption is not a consequence of economic boom around the coalmines but directly linked to the coal mining itself.     

Telecommunication externality on migration: Evidence from Chinese villages

We use a unique data set of Chinese villages to investigate whether access to telecommunications, in particular, landline phones, increases the likelihood of outmigration. By using regional and time variations in the installation of landline phones, our difference-in-difference estimation shows that the access to landline phones increases the ratio of out-migrant workers by 2 percentage points, or about 51% of the sample mean in China. The results remain robust to a battery of validity checks. Furthermore, landline phones affect outmigration through two channels: information access on job opportunities and especially timely contact with left-behind family members. Our findings underscore the positive migration externality of expanding telecommunications access in rural areas, especially in places where migration potential is large.