This paper studies the rural development impacts of a road subsidy -- part of China'smassive 2009-10 Economic Stimulus Plan (ESP) -- that led to the sudden and unexpected abandonment of the local cost share requirement typically imposed on villages by upper-levels of government. Relying on a...

This paper evaluates the causal relationship between economic and development zones (EDZs) and the productivity of a large sample of incumbent firms in China. I take into account possible different selection mechanisms across two popular types of EDZs – economic and technological development...

This paper examines the effects of a minimum wage on wage inequality and employment outcomes in China's urban minority regions and whether those effects vary for Han and ethnic minorities. Minimum wage data is combined with a proprietary datasource obtained from China's Household Ethnic Survey...

This paper studies the relationship between firms' innovation activities, financial constraints and corporate tax reform in China. A firm-level proxy for financial constraints is derived using cash-flow analysis and subsequently linked to various innovation activities of the firm. As an...

This paper estimates a knowledge production function to study the effects of local spillovers on the patenting activity and new innovation sales of Chinese firms during a period marked by rapid economic reform. We show that local spillovers expected to arise between co-located firms in related...