We study how extreme (high) temperatures affect firm dynamics---entry, exit, and aggregate productivity---in Chinese manufacturing sectors. Existing studies focus on the effects on incumbent firms (intensive margin), while we examine the effects on entry and exit (extensive margin), and their...

In this paper, we document a novel fact that disclosures of public information reshape social dynamics in China. Using the staggered roll-out of a quasi-natural experiment of air pollution information disclosure and a novel high-frequency data set of social and public events, we find...

Using a novel city-level high-frequency panel data set of social and public events in Chinese cities, we document that extreme high temperatures significantly reshape social dynamics. Extreme high temperatures lead to an increase in social cooperation, and the effects are more salient when...

Input-output linkages among sectors and firms are largely overlooked when assessing regulatory policies. Using a carbon emissions regulation in China as an example, we find that the regulation facilitates the transition to green technologies and reduces entry and carbon emissions in the...

This paper establishes a novel argument that social networks among local politicians reduce spatial frictions of corporate investment. We leverage the replacement of city officials and the resulting exogenous variations of hometown ties among city party secretaries to examine their impact on...

In this paper, I provide the first cross-country empirical analysis to establish three stylized facts on electoral incentive dynamics, national leaders' capability, and economic performance, using a novel data set of national leaders' personal and tenure characteristics and countries'...

I propose a mathematically tractable model to study the optimal compensation scheme in organizations with arbitrary interpersonal networks, in which agents connected in a network help neighbors and work collectively to produce a team's output, and payment is an equity share linked to the...

In this paper, I document three stylized facts on leaders, institutions, and re-election incentives, using cross-country data: (1) in democracies, the positive relationship between leaders' performance and their capability is significantly less pronounced in their last term, when they do not...

In this paper, I document two stylized facts on leaders, institutions, and economic development: (1) leaders in democracies have more experience than those in non-democracies; and (2) more experienced leaders lead to better economic performance in democracies and higher regime stability in...

In this paper, I examine the effects of China's civil examination system (keju) on modern-day innovation and firm dynamics. Using the variation in the density of jinshi (the highest exam qualification) and using the distance to the printing ingredients (pine and bamboo) as the instrumental...