Seminars

Speaker: Dr Jamel Saadaoui, University of Strasbourg, France
Date: Thursday, 7th March 2024

Abstract: This paper assesses the effect of US-China political relationships and geopolitical risks on oil prices. To this end, we consider two quantitative measures, the Political Relationship Index (PRI) and the Geopolitical Risk Index (GPR), and rely on structural VAR and local projection methodologies. Our findings show that improved US-China relationships, as well as higher geopolitical risks, drive up the price of oil. In fact, unexpected shocks in the political relationship index are associated with optimistic expectations of economic activity, whereas unexpected shocks in the geopolitical risk index also reflect fears of supply disruption. Political tensions and geopolitical risks are thus complementary causal drivers of oil prices, the former being linked to consumer expectations and the latter to the prospects of aggregate markets.

Biography: Dr Jamel Saadaoui is a senior lecturer in economics at the University of Strasbourg and is affiliated with the BETA laboratory. His research covers a range of topics in the open economy, like the geopolitical tensions between China and the U.S., the holding of international reserves in emerging countries, the exchange rates in the euro area, and the oil markets. Furthermore, he teaches economics and statistics at the Faculty of Economics and Management of the University of Strasbourg. Besides, he has been an elected member of the National Council of Universities since 2016. He has been co-organising the Cournot Seminar, the main seminar of BETA-Strasbourg, since 2020. In 2022, he was elected to the board of trustees of the University of Strasbourg. Since 2023, he has been the Head of Master 1 Macroeconomics and European Policy at the University of Strasbourg.

Speaker: Miss Lanlan Wu, School of Economics, The University of Nottingham
Date: Thursday, 29th February 2024

Abstract: This paper investigates the export gains of multi-product firms from trade liberalisation through a new channel of firm import sourcing capability. Using firm-level data of Chinese processing trade, this paper constructs the key measure of import similarity between firms and products according to the imported intermediate inputs used. The empirical results indicate that, in response to reductions of trade policy uncertainty after China's accession to the WTO, multi-product processing exporters are more likely to enter into and less likely to drop products that are similar to their prior import structures. Because of firms' prior experience in importing certain intermediate inputs, it makes them more efficient in obtaining these inputs and gives them an advantage in producing and exporting products that require the use of such inputs in the future. When there is trade liberalisation, it interacts with firm's sourcing capability to determine the future export activities of multi-product firms. Our results are robust when considering the possible impact of firm's import experience in ordinary trade, input trade liberalisation and the inclusion of other controls that might affect firm exports. In the theoretical model, by extending Boehm et al. (2022) and introducing the trade cost, this paper builds a relationship between export shocks, input supplier entry, and firm product choices. It shows that firm revenues are affected by the interaction of import similarity and export shocks, which supports our empirical findings.

Biography: Lanlan Wu is now a third-year PhD student in the School of Economics at University of Nottingham. Lanlan works in research areas such as banking deregulation and firm exports (the impact of the establishment of city commercial banks on the export of Chinese firms), trade policy and firm activities (how firms' import structures impact their gains from trade liberalisation), with an interest in firm patents. She has published in academic journals such as Journal of International Trade (CSSCI) and Finance and Trade Research (CSSCI).

Speaker: Dr Ze Ren, Nottingham University Business School
Date: Thursday, 14th December 2023

Abstract: This study examines the role of multiple large shareholders (MLS) in determining companies' debt preferences. Utilising a dataset comprising 3,438 Chinese publicly listed companies during the timeframe of 2000 to 2020, we observe that MLS decrease the reliance on bank debt. This result remains resilient despite addressing concerns related to endogeneity and subjecting it to robust tests. Furthermore, the influence of MLS on companies' bank debt financing is particularly pronounced for companies with weak bank monitoring. The study further explores the impact of MLS on companies in financial distress and those with low information asymmetry, finding that the reduction in bank debt ratios is less noticeable for such firms. Overall, we find that MLS serves to decrease a firm's dependence on traditional bank financing, effectively substituting the need for debt monitored by banks.

Biography: Ze Ren has recently completed her doctoral studies in Finance and Risk at Nottingham University Business School. She also holds a Master's degree in Accounting and a Bachelor's degree in Economics. Under the supervision of Professor Simona Mateut, her Ph.D. thesis explored various dimensions of corporate governance and financial decision-making. In the future, she aspires to focus her research on the application of machine learning (ML) in the field of finance.

Speaker: Dr Hongyi Lai,School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham
Date: Thursday, 9th November 2023

Abstract: The contrasting responses to COVID-19 in 2020 around the world, especially in the major democratic and non-democratic nations, have re-ignited a debate on the merits of political institutions in coping with a catastrophe. A noticeable view among scholars and the public suggests that a non-democratic regime had an edge in initiating a unified and coordinated response to the epidemic and that democratic regimes suffered from inadequate coordination and delays. China’s COVID-19 response in 2020 has been cited as a primary case to support this view. Examining epidemic responses in China in the past two decades, this study attempts a panel data analysis of the pattern of epidemic responses, investigates the underlying causes, and tests potential hypotheses. The preliminary findings offer a sober perspective of the role of institutions in epidemic management in a non-democratic nation, as well as a democratic one.

Biography: Hongyi Lai is an associate professor at the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham, UK. He was previously an associate professor at the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies of the university. His research covers governance and the domestic and international political economy of China.

Speaker: Dr Ziyou Wang, Henley Business School, University of Reading
Date: Thursday, 2nd October 2023

Abstract: The increasingly important role of sentiment complicates the challenges that housing developers are faced in the boom-bust cycle of the regional housing market, and standard economic models may result in sub-optimal or even unreasonable inferences when the sentiment effect is overlooked. In this paper, we intend to investigate how developer sentiment affects developers’ decision-making and, eventually the regional housing supply. The theoretical model shows that the expected waiting time to develop exhibits a U-shape pattern against developer sentiment; and the optimal density declines when developer sentiment intensifies, ceteris paribus. The empirical study provides evidence to support the theoretical implications.

Biography: Ziyou Wang received his PhD in Urban Economics from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and joined the Henley Business School in 2022. Prior to joining, he was a Lecturer in Financial Economics at Coventry University London, and a teaching fellow at UCL and a Postdoc at the University of Cambridge. Ziyou's research interests mainly focus on Behavioural Economics and Urban Economics. Ziyou is actively engaged in the scholarly debate on topics ranging from behavioural biases and industry dynamics, and regional and urban development, as well as land use and policy.

Speaker: Dr Kun Bao, School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University, China
Date: Thursday, 19 October 2023

Abstract: This paper explores how marital commitment influences a couple’s post-marriage investment in common assets. Different from previous studies that assumed complete information within marriage, we have developed a game model that takes into account the signaling behaviour when spouses operate under incomplete information. Utilising data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2010 to 2016 and treating the implementation of the new Marriage Law in 2011 as an external shock, we identified this signaling behaviour and find that, on average, the legal shock boosted couple’s joint ownership of houses by 6.1%. This finding remains robust under various tests, including using the number of “jinshi” in local history to proxy the prevalence of Confucian culture as the instrumental variables. Furthermore, we offer evidence that elucidates the mechanism behind the effect: the legal shock reduced the level of commitment between spouses, with the house serving as a “signaling vehicle” from husband to wife. Our findings highlight the importance of commitment in household welfare and provide a new perspective on understanding marriage law and spousal interaction in China.

Biography: Dr Kun Bao is an Assistant Professor at the School of Economics and Management in Beijing Jiaotong University. He obtained his PhD in Economics from the University of Nottingham in the UK. His research interests cover Family Economics, Development Economics and Corporate Finance.

Speaker: Professor Pinghan Liang, School of Government, Sun Yat-Sen University, China
Date: Thursday, 23 March 2023

Abstract: Using the Budget Law reform in China as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper examines the causal impact of Use-it-or-lose-it budget rules on local governments’ year-end spending spikes. We exploit all 2.8 million government procurement contracts during 2014-2021, and use a semi-supervised learning algorithm to measure the quality of the contract. We show substantial surges in procurement contracts at the end of the year, and these contracts are more likely of low quality. The difference-in-difference model indicates that after the reform, local governments award 25.8% more procurement contracts and double spending on procurement in the last month of the year. The year-end spending surges concentrate on goods and construction projects, and favour local suppliers. The regions receiving more fiscal transfer exhibit larger year-end spending spikes, but local officials’ promotion incentives mitigate the spikes. This paper provides clear evidence that limiting fiscal funds rollover distorts public resource allocation in China, the world’s second-largest economy.

Biography: Pinghan Liang is a professor at the School of Government, Sun Yat-Sen University, China. Currently, he is a Swire visiting fellow at St Anthony’s College, University of Oxford, in 2022-23. He receives PhD in Economics from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. His research interests include Political Economy in China, Behavioural and Experimental Economics, and the Social Impact of Digital Technology. He has published in leading journals, such as Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Comparative Economics, China Economic Review, etc. His research has been funded by the National Natural Science Foundation and the National Office of Philosophy and Social Science. He is also the peer reviewer for Econometrica, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of European Economic Association.

Speaker: Dr Xi Chen, School of Public Health, Yale University
Date: Thursday 16 March 2023

Abstract: Global estimates for disability are on the rise amid rapid population aging. Assistance with daily living is essential for people who suffer from disability. Using harmonised data in the past decade on community-dwelling participants aged 50+ from China, the United States, England, and the European Union, our estimates consistently showed that, across all 31 countries in vastly different stages of development, at least one fifth of demented individuals reporting difficulty with any basic or instrumental activities of daily living (ADL/IADL) received no care for their functional limitations. Substantial disparities were also identified. In particular, the less educated had significantly higher prevalence of reporting ADL/IADL difficulty with no formal care received. People living alone had higher prevalence of reporting ADL/IADL difficulty with no informal care received. Overall, Lack of any care did not improve over time, regardless of the stages of development. Our estimates highlight the urgency to ensure basic provision of care for people suffering from disabilities, especially among those who are less educated or live alone.

Biography: Xi Chen, PhD, is an associate professor of health policy and economics at Yale University. His research integrates causal inference, machine learning, and epidemiological approaches to evaluate policies on population aging, life course health, and global health systems. He is an Editor at the Journal of Population Economics, a consultant at the United Nations, the World Bank, Research Fellow at IZA Institute of Labor Economics, Cluster Head at the Global Labor Organization, former President of the China Health Policy and Management Society, National Institutes of Health’s Butler-Williams Scholar and Claude D. Pepper Scholar, research affiliate of Cornell Institute on Health Economics, Health Behaviors and Disparities, adjunct professor at Peking University, Guest Editor at the Journal of Asian Economics, and a member of the editorial board at China CDC Weekly. His research funded by the NIH/NSF/USDA appears in science, economics, and medical journals, recognised through numerous awards such as the Kuznets Prize and GSA awards, and widely covered in global media. He is a commentator at BBC, Bloomberg, CNN, and writes opinion pieces for NYT. He obtained a PhD in Applied Economics from Cornell University.

Speaker: Dr Xuyan Lou, School of Economics, University of Nottingham Ningbo China
Date: Thursday 1 December 2022

Abstract: This paper provides the first causal estimates on the peer effects of newcomers in China’s middle schools. We define newcomers as students arriving in the local county/district from other counties/districts during their middle school entrance. Using the data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), we exclude the self-selection by exploit the within-school random assignment of students to classrooms. Our findings indicate that having a higher proportion of newcomers in the classroom reduces math, Chinese, English and cognitive test scores of non-newcomers. We then show that the spillover effects of newcomers with and without local Hukou on non-newcomers with local Hukou are significantly negative, whereas we do not find strong evidence of negative spillovers from non-newcomers without local Hukou. The worse classroom environment and worse inter-group relations are the main channels for negative peer effects of newcomers.

Biography: Xuyan Lou is an assistant professor in the School of Economics at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. She graduated with a PhD in Economics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2018. Her research field is applied microeconomics, including labour economics, health economics and Chinese economy. Recently Xuyan published her research in Journal of Labor Economics and Journal of Comparative Economics.

Speaker: Dr Xiyi Yang, School of Entrepreneurship and Management, ShanghaiTech University; Shanghai, China
Date: Thursday 10 November 2022

Abstract: Since the mid-twentieth century, big-science research infrastructure (RI) has become an indispensable component in modern scientific research. Using data of 1.8 million scientific publications and employing a difference-in-differences design, we estimate the causal impact of a major RI, Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF), on China’s indigenous scientific publications by domestic scholars from 1998 to 2015.

We find that for affected scientific disciplines, the establishment of SSRF caused a 40.1% and 16.2% increase in the number and percentage of high-impact indigenous publications, and a 16.9% increase in the average impact factor of indigenous publications. Combined, our findings suggest that SSRF has led to a quantitative and qualitative growth of China’s indigenous science. Such findings have important implications for public policy design and a better understanding of China’s rise as a formidable global power in science and technology. The study also addresses the concern that China lacks originality and indigenous innovation capability.

Biography: Xiyi Yang is currently working as an assistant professor and Principal Investigate at the School of Entrepreneurship and Management, ShanghaiTech University, an affiliate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Hong Kong in 2015, and her Bachelor in International Shipping and Logistics from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2011.

Xiyi has broad research interests in topics related to economic geography, geography of science and innovation, and sustainability. Her works have been published in journals including Journal of Economic Geography, World Development, and Asia Pacific Journal of Management. Her book on the emergence of big-science research infrastructures in China has been published by Xinhua Publishing House in 2021.

Speaker: Mr Wei Jiang, School of Economics, University of Nottingham Ningbo, China
Date: Thursday 27 October 2022

Abstract: Improving public hospital efficiency is critical to maintaining and improving the quality of healthcare service the public sector provides. As most Chinese hospitals are publicly owned, it is essential to monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of hospitals in the public sector to keep their services to the highest possible standard.

This paper assesses the efficiency of public hospitals at the county level in East China using a panel dataset from the National Health Statistical Information Report System between 2009 and 2015. We use Data Envelopment Analysis to estimate hospital efficiency, apply a Tobit Difference-in-Differences to evaluate the pilot reforms, and adopt propensity score matching to address biases caused by the selection of counties into the pilot program.

Hospitals in the pilot program are more efficient. Yet, contrary to the policy objective, pilot hospitals’ efficiency advantage has narrowed since the pilot reform. This is possibly due to the multitude of policy objectives of public hospitals and the scale over-expansion among publicly owned county hospitals. Local economic conditions, including industrial development and the size of local government expenditure, are positively associated with hospital efficiencies.

Biography: Wei Jiang is a PhD candidate in Economics at the school of economics, University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC). His current research interest lies in health economics, policy evaluation, and hospital management. Specifically, he wishes to combine casual inference techniques and efficiency measures to investigate the impacts of the health reform in China. He has published papers in: China CDC Weekly, and Chinese Health Service Management.

Speaker: Dr Tom Lane, School of Economics, University of Nottingham Ningbo, China
Date: Thursday 6 October 2022

Abstract: Policies offering material incentives for Covid-19 vaccination have been widely used around the world as countries pursue the pressing objective of boosting immunity. This paper reports an experiment in China aimed at testing the effects of such interventions on vaccination willingness. We provide the first Covid-19 vaccine study to separately consider and directly compare the effects of both monetary and gift-based incentives, both of which have been commonly employed in practice.

Results from a sample of 1,365 individuals suggest that incentives in the range of 8-125 USD backfire, inducing lower vaccination willingness than simply offering vaccines for free. The effects of money and gifts of equivalent value do not significantly differ. We compare our results against the burgeoning literature on Covid-19 vaccine incentives, and demonstrate that the negative effects we identify are stronger than those observed to date in other populations.

Biography: Tom joined the School of Economics at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China in March 2018 as an Assistant Professor, specialising particularly in the fields of experimental and behavioural economics. He is also a member of the Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics (CeDEx), a world-leading behavioural and experimental economics research group within the School of Economics at the University of Nottingham, where he received his PhD in 2017.

Tom is currently the Local Director of CeDEx China, a CeDEx offshoot at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. His work has covered a range of topics – including discrimination, social norms, happiness, religion and the transmission of information – and has been published in such journals as the European Economic Review, the Journal of Public Economics, Oxford Economic Papers, Behavioural Public Policy, and the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.

Speaker: Professor Yaojun Li, The University of Manchester
Date: Thursday 26 May 2022

Abstract: Using data from Chinese Family Panel Studies (CFPS 2018), this paper analyses the impact of educational assortative mating on marital satisfaction of conjugal partners by using diagonal reference models.

The results suggest that the higher the level of educational homogamy, the higher the marital satisfaction for both spouses; that hypogamous marriage can significantly reduce the marital satisfaction of both spouses while hypergamous marriage has a positive effect on wife’s marital satisfaction; and that there are clear gender differences of educational impacts on marital satisfaction – for wives, the larger the differences between their own and the husband’s educational levels, the stronger the negative effect on their marital satisfaction whereas short-range hypergamy increases their marital satisfaction; for husbands, only long-range hypogamous marriage has a negative impact on their own marital satisfaction. With the gender-gap reversal in education, hypogamy will increase, and the stability of marriage and marital satisfaction may face more challenges in the future. 

Biography: Yaojun Li is a Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology, the University of Manchester, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).He obtained his MPhil and DPhil in Sociology at the University of Oxford.

His research focuses on social mobility and social stratification, with particular regard to class, education, labour market position, social capital and ethnic integration in Britain and China. He has published over 100 journal papers in English and has conducted around 20 research projects as PI or Co-PI funded by academic and government agencies in Britain, China, USA, Australia and Qatar.

His work has appeared in leading sociology journals such as the American Journal of Sociology, British Journal of Sociology, European Sociological Review, Research in Social Mobility and Stratification, and Sociology.

He has also written many official reports for government organisations and think-tanks. He has edited several books on Social Capital (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015) and Social Inequality in China (with Yanjie Bian, World Science Publishing, 2019), and is writing a book on Social Mobility with Anthony Heath (Polity Press).

Speaker: Dr Yuanyuan Ma, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, China
Date: Thursday 7 April 2022

Abstract: How and why do household credit constraints affect fraud victimisation when households face fraud schemes? Using the urban sample of a novel nationally representative data set on fraud victimisation and household finance, we find that households facing credit constraints are associated with a higher probability of becoming fraud victims and suffer from higher economic losses from frauds than households not facing such constraints. Further analyses show that the personal discount rate and the need for social network expansion are critical pathways via which credit constraints affect fraud victimisation.

Biography: Yuanyuan Ma is an Associate Professor in Wenlan School of Business at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. She is also a Visiting Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin and a Research Affiliate of IZA. Her research covers a wide range of topics in health economics, population economics and development economics. Her work has been published in: Journal of Health Economics, Demography, Health Economics, and World Development.

Speaker: Professor Dayong Zhang, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, China
Date: Thursday 17 March 2022

Abstract: Emission trading schemes (ETS) provides a market mechanism to mitigate carbon emissions and has been introduced in many countries across the world. The fundamental idea of an ETS is to make carbon emission costly. As a consequence, firms undertaking cross-border expansions may have to take this extra cost into consideration when entering a market with ETS. In other words, cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions decisions and also the consequential financial performance may be affected.

Using a large sample of international firms between 2000 and 2019, we investigate this issue via a Difference-in-Difference (DID) approach. Our results show that introducing ETS in host countries lead to significantly less cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions deals and also lower financial performance. There are also clear evidences of cross-sectoral differences. In addition to the cost, we also find evidence that the establishment of carbon market can bring additional uncertainties, which contribute to the negative effects on cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions.

Biography: Dayong Zhang is a Professor of Financial Economics at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, China. His research interests cover energy finance, climate finance, banking and finance, and general economic and financial issues in emerging economies. He is the principle investigator of over ten research grants from the National Social Science Foundation of China (NSSFC), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), British Academy, and other sources.

He published over 100 articles in peer reviewed journals and is the Clarivate highly cited researcher in 2021. He is the co-founder of China Energy Finance Network, president of the Society for the Studies of Climate Finance (www.cnefn.com) in China, and vice president of International Society for Energy Transition Studies (www.isets.org).