This paper extends the team production theory pioneered by Holmstrom (1982) with a team signaling model. In the model, the team's output acts as a signal of the team's ability, and thus is valuable for the team members. The team members will cooperate to some extent to signal a speci fic type,...

Using political mobility data for 189 leaders from China’s central state-owned enterprise (CSOEs) in 2008-2011, for the first time this paper investigates the mechanism of political turnover for leaders as quasi-government officers in CSOEs. We find that: (1) the likelihood of promotion of...

Empirical research has called for intensive use of disaggregated data. One of the most heavily used data set in studying the corporate behavior and performance in China is Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database. As we will show, this data set suffers from data matching problems as well as...

China’s coalmining fatalities were 140 times higher than the U.S. in the last decade. To shed light on this issue, we form and examinea unique panel dataset of 25,387 firm-year observations for China’s coalmining industry. We show that a firm’s leverage significantly determines its...

Empirical research has called for intensive use of disaggregated data. One of the most heavily used data set in studying the corporate behavior and performance in China is Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database. As we will show, this data set suffers from data matching problems as well as...

Using political mobility data for 189 leaders from China’s central state-owned enterprise (CSOEs) in 2008-2011, for the first time this paper investigates the mechanism of political turnover for leaders as quasi-government officers in CSOEs. We find that: (1) the likelihood of promotion of...

China’s coalmining fatalities were 140 times higher than the U.S. in the last decade. To shed light on this issue, we form and examinea unique panel dataset of 25,387 firm-year observations for China’s coalmining industry. We show that a firm’s leverage significantly determines its...

Regional corruptness in China has a positive effect on the profitability of private firms, but not that of state-owned firms. A natural experiment of exogenous trade policy change suggests that corruption may help private firms circumvent government regulation.

This paper examines the impact of political cycle on coalmine accidents in China. The political cycle is formed by the major local meetings of legislative bodies held every year in all provinces of China. This is because the government has a strong incentive to maintain social stability during...

China reformed value-added tax (VAT) by removing investment from the tax base in northeastern provinces in 2004, which is a “natural experiment” of its tax system. Using difference-in-differences method, this paper for the first time investigates the impact of VAT reform on China firms’...