Can biased media in authoritarian systems effectively reshape citizens' beliefs if they have an option of not paying attention to it? We address this question by developing a formal model where citizens can choose whether to consume media while perceiving the existence of information...

What explains the rapidly increasing housing investment demand in China? To address this question, we develop an analytical framework featuring how expected capital gains impact households' housing investment decisions when subject to financial constraints. Housing demand in China takes place...

We study how centralized control over local bureaucratic agencies helps alleviate the enforcement problem of environment protection policies in China, exploiting a reform that empowers upper-level environmental protection bureaus to administrate lower-level bureaus vertically through personnel...

We analyze how institutions shape communication incentives in a Romer-Rosenthal agenda-setting model with private information and private values. An agenda setter faces multiple voters who are privately informed about their ideal points in a one-dimensional policy space. We consider two...

The COVID-19 global pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to nations and cities worldwide. Governments have adopted Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to rapidly control the spread of a novel coronavirus. As an innovative but controversial ICT-based tool, health QR code...