Economic transition was a systemic change of institutions from those that facilitated a planned, communist economy to those suitable for a market economy. This paper examines the state of this political and economic institutional development in 28 transition economies, focusing on the global...

What factors determine the environmental and quality of life conditions that exist in different regions of the world? What factors can explain how these conditions evolve through time? This paper empirically examines the answers to these questions, focusing on the link between economic freedom...

This paper presents theory and evidence from highly disaggregated Chinese data that tariff reductions induce exporters to upgrade product quality. The paper documents two stylized facts and develops a simple analytic framework to predict that import tariff reductions induce an incumbent...

This paper examines how fiscal incentives affect the policy choices of local governments in the context of China. Based on exogenous changes in the intergovernmental revenue sharing scheme, we construct a simulated instrumental variable to resolve the endogeneity problem. We find evidence that...

Recent evaluations of traditional microloans have not found significant impacts on borrower production or incomes. We examine whether this can be remedied by delegating selection of borrowers for individual liability loans to local trader-lender agents incentivized by repayment-based...

One recent policy tend to improve teacher quality is providing conditional grants to trainees in teacher colleges and commit them to working in disadvantaged areas upon graduation. Yet little is known whether such policies attract better trainees. This paper evaluates a conditional grant program...

IEMS Faculty Associate Prof. Naubahar Sharif looks into the challenges facing Hong Kong-owned manufacturing firms in Guangdong, assesses the role of innovation in firm survival, and recommends areas for improvement to policymakers in both Hong Kong and Guangdong.

Dr. Sasidaran Gopalan, an HKUST IEMS Post-Doctoral Fellow, examines some of the multi-dimensional implications of foreign bank entry in emerging markets. Foreign banks have been growing in importance in several emerging market economies and they are expected to play systemically important roles...