We estimate air pollution’s causal effect on firm innovation based on a nationwide sample of Chinese manufacturing firms. Using thermal inversion as instrument, we show that air pollution significantly reduces innovation: the total loss in new product value for our sample firms amounts to...

This paper investigates the causal relationship between younger school entry and childhood obesity. Using the restricted-access National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) and first-grade entrance policies, I compare years of education and the probability of being obese among students who are...

Measuring environmental regulation’s effect on firm competitiveness is central to designing optimal policies. Existing studies document significant negative effects of air pollution regulations on manufacturing competitiveness as measured by total factor productivity (TFP). A separate...

The labor market effects of environmental regulations in emerging economies are largely unexplored. This paper examines whether and how employment and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions are affected by the environmental cadre evaluation (ECE) policy in China. Our theoretical analyses suggest that...

Labor market outcomes for young college graduates have deteriorated substantially in the last twenty five years, and more of them are residing with their parents. The unemployment rate at 23-27 years old for the 1996 college graduation cohort was 9%, whereas it rose to 12% for the 2013...

This study identifies the effect of environmental regulation on worker earnings using China’s “City Air Pollution Prevention and Control Program” (CAPPCP), which is a new city-level air quality, as a quasi-experiment. CAPPCP provides variations in regulatory intensity across years and...

Through which channels, physical or cognitive, can air pollution influence worker performance? This question has not been answered in the literature. Using a unique dataset on the performance of soccer players in China, we investigate the effect of air pollution on different performance...

Decentralized insurance can be used to describe risk sharing mechanisms under which participants trade risks among each other as opposed to passing risks mostly to an insurer in traditional centralized insurance. There are a wide range of decentralized practices in all kinds of forms developed...

Using Maroc Telecom in Morocco as a case study, this research article examines employee satisfaction and incentive mechanisms in the telecom sector. A sample of 200 Maroc Telecom employees from various departments was subjected to surveys, interviews, and focus groups using a mixed-methods...