We conduct a large-scale field experiment in China to investigate the effect of being of childbearing age on gender discrimination in the labor market. We send 35,713 fictitious resumes to real job postings on a major Chinese online recruitment platform for jobs in four leading cities, Beijing,...

With quantity-based innovation targets and subsidy programs launched since the mid-2000s, Chinese patents have seen a sharp increase in number, accounting for 46% of the world’s total patent applications in 2020; however, their overall quality has been steadily declining over time. This paper...

On the eve of its economic reforms, China achieved a much higher level of secondary education than other countries with a similar per capita income at the time. This study investigates the pre-reform formation of China's human capital by examining a massive rural education expansion program...

How does differences in the competitive inclination of ethnic groups contribute to economic disparity and how does the ethnic composition of a group affect competitive inclinations of individuals from different ethnicities? We experimentally investigate how ethnic composition affects the...

This paper extends the Bayesian semiparametric stochastic volatility (SV-DPM) model of Jensen and Maheu (2010). Instead of using a Dirichlet process mixture (DPM) to model return innovations, we use an infinite hidden Markov model (IHMM). This allows for time variation in the return density...

China has been both praised and criticized for using industrial policy to achieve its economic goals. Does industrial policy work for China? Particularly, are these industrial policies making the targeted Chinese firms more productive? Alternatively, are efforts to promote productivity undercut...

We study the consequences of later marriage on later-life outcomes. China's family planning policies in the early 1970s---before the One-Child Policy (OCP)---regulated not only childbirth but also marriage. The recommended minimum marriage age of 25 years for men and 23 years for women was...

Empowering women and closing the gender gap are key issues for economic and social development. This paper explores whether higher education expansion could empower women by influencing gender norms and the level of gender equality in both the labor market and the marriage market. I evaluate the...

This paper analyzes the generalized quality differentiation model in multi-sided markets with positive externalities, which leads to new insights into the optimal pricing structure of the firm. We find that quality differentiation for users on one side affects not only the side involving...