This paper analyses the relationship between domestic market fragmentation and economic performance at the sub-national level within China. Market segmentation means that goods, services and factors of production -capital and labour- are not easily mobile across different regions. China's...

This paper studies the degree of mobility and estimates the motion law of workers across China between 1985 and 1995 in light of the new economic geography. We rely on intra and inter-provincial migration data for 30 Chinese provinces to measure the importance of provincial borders as...

This paper investigates the determinants of regional specialization between 1992 and 1997 using a panel covering 33 industries across 25 Chinese regions, paying particular attention to the role of regional protectionism. This study is motivated by a double paradox concerning the Chinese economy...

This paper studies how firm-level export performance is affected by Real Exchange Rate (RER) volatility and investigates whether this effect depends on existing financial constraints. Our empirical analysis relies on export data for more than 100,000 Chinese exporters over the period 2000-2006....

This paper studies the degree of integration of China's domestic market and investigates the determinants of inter-provincial trade barriers under the rubric endogenoustrade policy theory. I rely on industry-level trade flows extracted from provincial input-output tables to develop a model that...

Our work contributes to the literature relating output structure and economic development by showing that growth gains from upgrading are not unconditional. Relying on data from a panel of Chinese cities, we show that the level of capabilities available to domestic firms operating in ordinary...

We propose the first evaluation using micro-level data of the expected growth gains from the consistency of activities with local comparative advantage. Using firm level data from Chinese customs over 2000-2006, we investigate the relationship between the export performance of firms and how...

This paper assesses the effectiveness of environmental regulations in China. Our identication is based on the environmental policy of the Two Control Zones (TCZ), which was implemented by the Chinese government in 1998. The aim of this policy was to reduce sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions in...

We use recent detailed Chinese data on trade and pollution emissions to assess the environmental consequences of China's integration into the world economy. We rely on a panel dataset covering 235 Chinese cities over the 2003-2012 period to see whether the environmental repercussions from trade...

We here consider how Chinese firms adjust to higher minimum wages and how these affect aggregate productivity, exploiting the 2004 minimum-wage reform in China. We find that higher city-level minimum wages reduced the survival probability of firms which were the most exposed to the reform. For...