We provide the first evidence that promotion incentives can influence effort of employees in the public sector by studying China’s system of annual evaluations and promotions for teachers. Theoretical predictions from a tournament model of promotion incentives are tested using panel data...

We provide a new explanation for the stronger relationship between income and subjective wellbeing (SWB) found in cross-sectional versus panel studies based on the predictions of a rational expectations model of utility maximization with permanent and transitory income shocks. The model predicts...

This paper provides new evidence on educational disruptions caused by the Cultural Revolution and identifies the returns to schooling in urban China by exploiting individual-level variation in the effects of city-wide disruptions to education. The return to college is estimated at 49.8% using a...

This paper examines the relationship between foreign bank entry and financial depth for 57 emerging and developing economies (EMDEs) over 1995-2009. Using various measures of financial depth, the paper also explores the degree to which the relationship between foreign bank entry and financial...

An important dimension of the effects of foreign bank entry on financial sector development relates to that of financial inclusion. Despite its policy significance, the empirical literature offers little evidence on the impact of bank competition generally or foreign bank entry specifically on...

This paper looks at the effects of political volatility in transition economies to ascertain how nascent political institutions affect fledgling capital markets. Asymmetric (GJR) GARCH modeling of monthly data was taken for 21 transition economies on financial volatility, political volatility,...

This paper compares the value of political ties and market credibility in China by examining the consequence of corporate scandals. We categorize Chinese corporate scandals by whether the scandal is primarily associated with the destruction of i) the firm’s political networks (political...

We investigate whether and how an exogenous and unprecedented improvement in non-U.S. firms’ financial reporting quality affects post-earnings-announcement drift (PEAD). We find that PEAD declines after the information shock, and this decrease is more pronounced for firms with fewer...

On March 29, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court signaled its intention to geographically limit the reach of the U.S. securities antifraud regime and thus differentially exclude U.S.-listed foreign firms from the ambit of formal U.S. antifraud enforcement. We use this legal surprise as a natural...

In an experiment in non-formal schools in Indian slums, an incentive for attending a target number of school days increased average attendance when the incentive was in place, but had heterogeneous effects after it was removed. Among students with high baseline attendance, the post-incentive...