查看更多>>摘要：This paper studies the effect of family size on parents? labor supply and occupational prestige, using the censuses of both Taiwan and Mainland China. We rely on the exogenous increase in child quantity that results from having twins at the first birth. Our results indicate that an increase in family size has negative effects on the labor supply of mothers but not of fathers, in both Taiwan and Mainland China. In addition, we find that in Taiwan fathers tend to switch to occupations with lower prestige scores in response to an increase in family size. However, the negative effect of family size on occupational prestige is not observed in Mainland China, where the occupational mobility is low.
查看更多>>摘要：We use political connections between central and local governments in China to identify the effects of government spending. Our key innovation is using changes of central government ministers as a source of exogenous variation in earmarked transfers received by prefectural city-level governments. The analysis reveals that the increase in earmarked transfers is temporary and local effective tax rates do not respond to such fiscal expansions. Given that using cross-regional analysis for a monetary union can difference out the influence of monetary policy, the fiscal shock we study is a temporary, non-tax financed and no-monetary-policy-response government spending shock. We find the local fiscal multiplier in China is above one and there are no sig-nificant spillover effects from local government spending.
查看更多>>摘要：This paper examines the impact of pilot zones for integrating informatization and industrialization (PZIIs), a novel place-based techno-industrial policy for innovation. Combining quality adjusted invention patent data, we find that PZIIs have a significant and positive impact on urban innovation. Direct or indirect government support plays a vital role in mediating policy effects. The higher the government?s fiscal self-sufficiency rate, or the more economic resources it has, the stronger the policy effects. Moreover, policy effects are amplified in pilot zones that incorporate PZII performance into local government performance assessments and span multiple prefectural administrative units. Indirect government support is reflected in the promotion of market-oriented reforms. Policy effects are greater in pilot zones with a higher degree of marketization. Further, based on firm data, we show that PZIIs effectively guide firms to increase R&D investment, indicating that PZIIs create innovation incentives. Our paper facilitates understanding the role of government in accelerating the penetration of new technology into industrial upgrades.
查看更多>>摘要：We highlight a growing concern in the economics profession that young scholars face incentives that are misaligned with conducting research that furthers knowledge and addresses pressing policy problems. The premium given to publication in top journals leads to an emphasis on exhaustive treatment of narrow questions. Detailed, robustly identified studies of novel questions are of undeniable value; however, the opportunity cost of producing such studies is large in terms of research quantity and policy relevance. For economists who aim to achieve what we view as the ultimate goals of academic research (enhancing understanding of the world, solving social problems, and building foundational knowledge to enable future breakthroughs), we offer some insights from publication philosophy in the field of public health. We discuss how public health has developed norms around publishing that are more successful in meeting these ultimate goals. We then offer thoughts on potential lessons for young economists in China and the economics discipline.
查看更多>>摘要：Economics in China has been neoclassicalized in the past few decades. In this article, I argue that neoclassical economics is not a good theory of the market. It misleads both economists and government in understanding the economic issues. China is particularly vulnerable to its defects. In contrast, the Austrian School of economics is a better theory of the market since it studies the real market, not an imaginary market. The most important difference between the two economics paradigms is their understandings of the entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is missed in neoclassical economics. In the Austrian School economics and Schumpeterian economics, entrepreneurship is the soul of the market. The paradigm shift of economics is urgently needed but it will be a slow process. Chinese economists should play a role in this transformation.
NSTL
Elsevier