This study examines whether price limits affect underlying equilibrium prices on limit-hitting days. To identify two effects--a ceiling effect and a cooling or heating effect (C--H effect)--we use the fact that equilibrium prices are reached at the day immediately after price limits are hit. We...

In this study, we demonstrate how price limits can affect a return series on limit-hitting days. Our identification of two effects - a ceiling effect and a cooling or heating effect (C-H effect) is based on a resampling method suggested by Wei and Chiang (1999). We estimate the C-H effect by...

While the literature on consumption insurance is growing fast, little research has been conducted on how rural consumption insurance is affected by democracy. In this paper the authors examine how consumption insurance of Chinese rural residents is affected if the local leader is democratically...

This paper provides a search model for housing market where the number of buyers and/or sellers plays very important role. The model makes three testable predictions: (1) the unemployment rate has a negative impact on the trading volume and the sale prices of the housing market; (2) a larger...

In this paper, we study an important paradox of Deaton and Paxson (1998): Using the Barten model of economies of scale, Deaton and Paxson predict food share should increase as household size rises at the same per capita expenditure, while their empirical evidence shows the opposite. This paradox...

In a contest, participants spend money or effort to increase their chances of winning a prize. The authors examine primarily the following question: Could the timid (the more risk averse) have a better chance of winning in contests? Under limited liability the answer is always positive. In the...

At the end of 1998, China launched a government-run mandatory insurance program, the Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI), to replace the previous medical insurance system. Using the UEBMI reform in China as a natural experiment, this study identify variations in patient cost sharing...

Using three years of data from the 47 prefectures of Japan, we estimate behavior of households who simultaneously make discrete decisions about vehicle ownership and continuous decisions about driving distance. We use the estimated parameters to calculate elasticities and to simulate the effects...