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Chinese Infrastructure Projects Help Spread Economic Activity in the Global South

Richard Bluhm, Axel Dreher, Andreas Fuchs, Bradley C. Parks, Austin M. Strange, Michael J. Tierney, Dec 29, 2021

Using our recently published geolocated dataset on Chinese government-financed transport infrastructure investments from 2000 to 2014, we show that these investments lead to a decentralization of economic activity within the subnational jurisdictions where they are located. Our analysis documents that this decentralization shifts activity toward suburban and peri-urban areas in low-income countries. We find no evidence suggesting that these projects systematically alter the distribution of activity across subnational jurisdictions.

QR Code-Based Mobile Payments and Financial Inclusion

Thorsten Beck, Leonardo Gambacorta, Yiping Huang, Zhenhua Li, Han Qiu, Nov 09, 2022

By means of a unique dataset of around half a million Chinese firms, we investigate the link between the use of a QR code-based mobile payment system and financial inclusion.

The Collateral Channel of Monetary Policy: Evidence from China

Hanming Fang, Yongqin Wang, Xian Wu, May 13, 2020

As a quasi-natural experiment to estimate the causal impact of the collateral-based unconventional monetary policy, we exploit the expansion of the collateral for the Medium-Term Lending Facility (MLF) in the interbank bond market on June 1, 2018 by the People’s Bank of China. We also consider that many bonds are dual-listed in a largely segmented exchange market. We find that the policy reduced the spreads of the newly collateralizable, dual-listed bonds in the treatment...

China’s Import Demand for Agricultural Products: The Impact of the Phase One Trade Agreement

Robert Feenstra, Chang Hong, Aug 19, 2020

This paper shows that the most efficient way for China to fulfill its committed import purchases from the United States under the Phase One trade agreement is to mimic the effect of an import subsidy. The effective subsidies would divert China’s agricultural imports from other countries. We find that this trade diversion is especially strong for Australia and Canada, followed by Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Tax Policy and Lumpy Investment Behavior: Evidence from China’s VAT Reform

Zhao Chen, Xian Jiang, Zhikuo Liu, Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, Daniel Yi Xu, Apr 01, 2020

To stimulate investment and promote production efficiency, the Chinese government has undertaken a series of value-added tax (VAT) reforms. One of those reforms, in 2009, reduced not only the purchasing price of equipment, but also investment frictions, i.e., the price gap imposed by the pre-reform VAT system between new and used equipment. We find that this reform increased equipment investment by 36%...