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Pushing on a String: State-Owned Enterprises and Monetary Policy Transmission in China

Peter Tillmann, Hongyi Chen, Apr 18, 2018

In China, a large share of enterprises is state-owned and has preferential access to finances. This should affect the way the economy responds to changes in monetary policy. We find that a policy easing is more effective than a policy tightening – which is consistent with the PBC being able to “push on a string”.

Fiscal Stimulus, Deposit Competition, and the Rise of Shadow Banking: Evidence from China

Viral V. Acharya, Jun Qian, Yang Su, Zhishu Yang, Apr 24, 2024

The article reveals that the rise of shadow banking in China stems from the intensification of deposit competition after the global financial crisis, and analyzes the threat of small and medium-sized banks' disadvantage in this competition to the overall financial system.

Consumer-Financed Fiscal Stimulus Evidence from Digital Coupons in China

Jing Ding, Lei Jiang, Lucy Msall, Matthew J. Notowidigdo, Feb 05, 2025

In 2020, local governments in China began issuing digital coupons to stimulate spending in targeted categories such as restaurants and supermarkets. We find that the coupons caused large increases in spending of 3.1–3.3 yuan per yuan spent by the government. The large spending responses do not come from substitution away from non-targeted spending categories or from short-run intertemporal substitution. We conclude that digital coupons are a cost-effective way to provide targeted fiscal stimulus to specific sectors of the economy.

Digital Distractions with Peer Influence: The Impact of Mobile App Usage on Academic and Labor Market Outcomes

Panle Jia Barwick, Siyu Chen, Chao Fu, Teng Li, Jan 08, 2025

We present the first comprehensive evidence of how app usage affects academic performance and early career outcomes. App usage is contagious: a one standard deviation (around 3.5 hours per day) increase in roommates’ app usage raises an individual’s own app usage by 5.8%, with substantial heterogeneity across students. A one standard deviation increase in app usage reduces GPAs by 36.2% of a within-cohort-major standard deviation and lowers wages by 2.3%. The effect of roommates’ app usage is over half the size of an individual’s own usage effect. High-frequency GPS data reveal that high app usage crowds out time in study halls and increases late arrivals at and absences from lectures.

Does Import Competition Harm Innovation? Evidence from Firm-level Data in China

Qing Liu, Ruosi Lu, Yi Lu, Tuan Anh Luong, Oct 06, 2021

Twenty years ago, China’s entering the World Trade Organization (WTO) was a catalyst for its economic development and propelled China into becoming one of the most important economies in the world. But massive import tariff reductions allowed more import competition, which raised concerns that innovation would be curbed. Tuan Luong, from De Montfort University, and his co-authors, Qing Liu, Ruosi Lu, and Yi Lu, discuss the impacts of import competition on domestic innovation...