Digital transformation of commercial banks in China: Measurement, progress and impact
March 2023
Nowadays, digital transformation has become an urgent strategic task for traditional commercial banks. Due to the lack of measurement of banks’ digital transformation, whether digital transformation...
The return of protectionism: Prospects for Sino-US trade relations in the wake of the trade war
September 2024
Over the past six years, the Sino-US trade war has not only reshaped the relationship between the world's two largest economies but also profoundly influenced the global economic and trade patterns....
The special economic zones and innovation: Evidence from China
December 2021
We examine the impact of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) on innovation using China's county-level data from 1985 to 2011. Results show that the establishment of SEZs promotes a county's innovation in...
Age discrimination causes Unemployment: Evidence from the “35-year-Old phenomenon” in China
June 2025
Age discrimination in the labor market is a global issue, and in China, it becomes a pressing concern, particularly in the context of so-called “35-year-old crisis.” Departing from the literature that...
The Impact of tariff increase on export and employment of Chinese firms
September 2023
This paper examines the impact of the tariff increase implemented by the U.S. in 2018 on Chinese firms' export and subsequent employment adjustment. Under the influence of front run shipment and expected...
Education burden reduction, family education investment, and education equity
September 2023
How to effectively reduce the burden of students has received widespread attention in recent years. A series of burden reduction policies have been issued, yet there exists large dispute over the effectiveness...
How does the universal two-child policy affect fertility behavior?
December 2023
The Chinese government implemented the universal two-child policy on January 1, 2016 to arrest the decline in the nation's birthrate and address the challenge of a rapidly aging population. We find...
Gender roles and women’s labor market outcomes
June 2021
Using the China General Social Survey data, we tried to examine the impact of gender roles on women’s labor market outcomes. We find that traditional gender roles emphasizing women’s responsibility...
Decentralization and development of small cites: Evidence from county-to-city upgrading in China
September 2021
This paper examines how decentralization of administrative and fiscal authority affects the development of small cities by exploiting a unique reform of county-to-city upgrading (chexiansheshi) in China....
Changes in labor share of China: A micro-level anatomy
June 2025
Using comprehensive firm-level databases, we study the micro-basis of different trends in aggregate and individual labor shares in China's manufacturing sector during 1998–2016. We find that (1) redistributing...
Social mobility in China, 1645–2012: A surname study
September 2021
This paper estimates the rate of intergenerational social mobility of status in Late Imperial, Republican and Communist China by examining the changing social status of originally elite surnames over...
What are public development banks and development financing institutions ? ——qualification criteria, stylized facts and development trends
December 2021
Public development banks and development financing institutions are experiencing renaissance worldwide, but systematic academic research is patchy. The bottleneck mainly boils down to the lack of data,...
The appropriate level of financial inclusion: The perspective of financial stability
September 2023
We construct a global financial inclusion index using data from the World Bank, IMF, and V-Lab and propose an inverted U-shaped relationship between financial inclusion and financial stability. The...
Supply chain interconnection and SME financing: From the perspective of supply chain finance and trade credit
December 2024
By using an enhanced enterprise matching approach, we obtained microdata on the supply chain interconnections between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and listed companies. Our findings suggest...
Inequality of opportunity and fertility intentions
June 2025
Today's parents prioritize their children's future opportunities and well-being over the costs and benefits of child-rearing. Inequality of opportunity (IO) worsens children's developmental prospects...
Consumer streets: Microscopic evidence of road density and consumption vitality
March 2023
Increased consumption is a key driving factor for further economic development in China. This study examines the influence of road network density on consumption vitality, using big data and various...
Education resource reallocation and innovation: Evidence from university mergers in China
December 2022
Based on the university mergers policy in China that began in the 1990s, this paper uses a DID regression model to study the impact of higher education resource reallocation on university R&D. It reveals...
The contraction of Chinese shadow banking and corporate investment behavior: Evidence from the background of the “New Rules on asset management”
June 2024
Employing the exogenous scenario of the “New Rules on Asset Management” in April 2018, this paper tries to explore the impact of the contraction of Chinese shadow banking on corporate investment behavior....
The effects of the entries by bike-sharing platforms on urban air quality
September 2023
We study the effects of bike-sharing usage on urban air quality in China. Our Difference-in-Differences strategy exploits the staggered entries by two leading bike-sharing companies, ofo and Mobike,...
Fundamental research funding promotes college graduates’ employment: Evidence from the National Natural Science Foundation of China
December 2024
Drawing on the case of the the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), we examine the impact of fundamental research funding on college graduates’ employment. Our findings indicate that...
A friend indeed to friends in need? China's trade regime and Covid-19 vaccine diplomacy
September 2024
Employing newly available data on Chinese Covid-19 vaccine deliveries for a cross-section of 157 countries, we examine if China's vaccine diplomacy is driven by altruistic, enlightened self-interested...
Monetary policy shocks and the signaling channel of monetary policy in China
March 2023
This paper identifies exogenous monetary policy shocks based on the high frequency transaction data of China's interest rate swap market, and explores the ‘signaling channel’ of monetary policy by investigating...
Can targeted poverty alleviation reduce criminal offenses? Empirical evidence from China judgments online data
March 2024
Targeted Poverty Alleviation (TPA) is an important leverage for China to overcome poverty. While its economic effects are well studied, less is known about the social impact of TPA. Based on trial documents...
South-South cooperation and food security: Evidence from Chinese agricultural technology demonstration Center in Africa
March 2024
Using the Chinese Agriculture Technology Demonstration Center (ATDC) in Africa as a quasi-natural experiment, we examine the causal impacts of China’s aid on crop production in Africa. The data pertain...
Digital financial inclusion and household risk sharing: Evidence from China's digital finance revolution
December 2022
This paper examines how digital finance development affects household risk sharing in China. We provide convincing evidence that households that experience idiosyncratic negative shocks on income growth...