My Google Scholar Profile
check my IDEAS page and SSRN page for recent working papers.
Editorial Services:
Associate Editor, Journal of Comparative Economics
Associate Editor, China Economic Review
Associate Editor, Review of International Economics
Recent Working Papers:
[New!] "How Do Aggregate Pollution Reduction Mandates Affect Firms’ Emissions? – Evidence from China", with Jiayu Fang, Rui Xie, and Yuan Xu
Studies have shown that environmental regulations can reduce pollution emissions. However, questions such as how emissions are reduced and whether the reduction is efficiently allocated across firms remain underexplored. This paper applies a difference-in-differences estimation approach on firms’ emission behavior before and after a city-based emission regulation was introduced. Cities with larger emission reduction targets saw larger reductions in aggregate emissions in SO2, but didn’t improve on firms’ emission intensity. Emission targets are realized mainly through reducing emissions by large firms, resulting in higher emission intensity. Our findings suggest that less pollutive firms are producing a decreasing share of output, implying an efficiency loss under the aggregate pollution reduction mandates.
[New!] "Super Factory Comes to Town: Identifying the Agglomeration Spillovers from Foxconn Factory in Henan" with Jianpeng Deng, and Hongbing Wei, 2023
[New!] "Reshaping Factory Asia: How Did the US-China Trade War Affect the Asian-Pacific Supply Chain?" with Jingxin Ning, and Yuan Xu, 2023
[New!] "Carbon Tariffs, International Trade and Global Inequality" with Ruobing Qin, 2023
[New!] "The De Minimis Imports During the Pandemic: Evidence from Millions of Online Orders from China" with Kai Liu, Shuzhong Ma, and Gangjian Pan, 2024
[New!] "Tariffs Tax the Poor More: Evidence from Household Consumption During the US-China Trade War” with Luca Macedoni, Jingxin Ning, and Mingzhi(Jimmy) Xu. 2024
Submitted Working Papers:
[1] “Trade and Selection with Heterogeneous Firms and Perfect Competition,” 2021, with Xue Bai, Arpita Chatterjee, Kala Krishna, see the NBER working paper No.30650.
[2] "Soybeans or Planes: Political Power of US Businesses and China's Trade Retaliation", with Lingsheng Meng, Ruobing Qin, and Yuan Xu.
[3] “Parachute with Work and Beyond? Nonstandard Jobs during Trade Conflicts” with Chuan He, He Li, and Mingzhi Xu
[4] "Tit-for-Tat in Antidumping: How Did China Fight its Antidumping Wars with its Trading Partners?" with Wonkyung Lee and Yuan Xu
In this paper, we examine the bilateral relationship between China and its major trading partners in imposing antidumping using quarterly data on antidumping cases from 1997Q1 to 2020Q4. We find that antidumping investigations against China by the US significantly lead to and predict antidumping investigations against the US by China, which suggests that the US is the first mover and China is the follower that retaliates. In contrast, in the bilateral relations between China and the European Union, India, or Japan, there is no evidence of significant causality from either direction.
[5] "The Criminogenic Consequence of Export Slowdown: Evidence from Millions of Court Judgment Documents in China" with Yu Pan, and Mingzhi Xu
previously circulated with the title: "Work or Crook: the Socioconomic Consequence of the Export Slowdown in China"
Applying the textual analysis to millions of judgment documents at all levels of courts in China, we construct measures of crime rates that vary across cities and over the years. Estimations using a shift-share instrumental variable find higher crime rates in cities that experience a more severe export slowdown.
Featured in VoxDev
PUBLICATIONS:
[28] "Optimal Ownership and Firm Performance: An Analysis of China's FDI Liberalization" with Peter Eppinger, CESifo Working paper No. 10551, previously circulated with the title: "Optimal Ownership and Firm Performance: Theory and Evidence from China's FDI Liberalization" Accepted by Review of Economics and Statistics
[27] "Trade Wars and Industrial Policy Competitions: Understanding the US-China Economic Conflicts", with Jiandong Ju, Zi Wang, and Xiaodong Zhu, 2024 Journal of Monetary Economics. previously circulated with the title: ”Trade Wars and Industrial Policy along the Global Value Chains”
[26]"The ``Matthew Effect'' in Rebates: How Does VAT Rebates Allocation Affect Firm Export Performance", (with Bing Lu) 2023 Journal of Public Economics
[25] "Magnification of the "China Shock" Through the US Housing Market" with Rob Feenstra and Yuan Xu. covered by WSJ. 2023 Review of International Economics NBER working paper version.
[24] "Heterogeneous Impacts of the Section 301 Tariffs: Evidence from the Revision of Product Lists" (with Lingsheng Meng), Canadian Journal of Economics. 2023 V56(1)
[23] "China's Skill-complementary Imports”, (with Hongbin Li, and Lei Li), China Economic Review v.74, No.101809
[22] “Trade and Minimum Wages in General Equilibrium: Theory and Evidence”, with Xue Bai, Arpita Chatterjee, and Kala Krishna, 2021, Journal of International Economics (133), No.103535
[21] "An Eye for An Eye? The Trade and Price Effects of China’s Retaliatory Tariffs on U.S. Exports" with Jingxin Ning and Mingzhi Xu, China Economic Review (65), 101685. [The published version has some typesetting error, see paper for the complete working paper version with appendix]
[20] “Trade Policy Uncertainty and Firm Innovation: Firm level Evidence from China's WTO Accession” (with Leo Qing Liu), 2020, Journal of International Economics Data for replication
[19] "Export Tax Rebate and the Margins of Exports: Product Level Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment", (with Wonkyung Lee and Yuan Xu) 2020, International Tax and Public Finance
[18] “Input Trade Liberalization and Firm Markup Distribution: Evidence from China” (with Zhengwen Liu). 2021, Economic Inquiry
[17] “US Exports and Employment” (with Rob Feenstra and Yuan Xu), 2019, Journal of International Economics Vol120: 46-58.
covered in VOX,and WSJ
[16] “How Political Incentives Affect Chinese OFDI: A U.N. Security Council Membership Perspective”. (with Yue Teng) World Economy 2018,41(12): 3416-3441
[15] “How You Export Matters: Choice of Export Modes and the Evolution of Productivity”, (with Xue Bai, and Kala Krishna), Journal of International Economics, vol. 104(1): 122-137, 2017
[14] "Recasting the Iron Rice Bowl: The Evolution of China's State Owned Enterprises" (with Daniel Berkowitz, and Shuichiro Nishioka). Review of Economics and Statistics, 2017, 99(4): 735-747
[13] “Revisiting the Effective Rate of Protection in the Late Stages of Chinese Industrialization” (with David Jacks and Bo Chen),World Economy, 2017 40(2): 424-438.
[12]“How do Exchange Rate Movements Affect Chinese Exports: A Firm-Level Investigation” (with Hongbin Li, Yuan Xu), Journal of International Economics, 2015. V.97(1):148-161.
[11] “Gross Job Creation and Destruction in China ” (with Xue Qiao and Yuan Xu) Journal of Comparative Economics 43 (2015): 1085-1100
[10] “Domestic Value-Added in China’s Exports and Its Distribution by Firm Ownership” (with Zhi Wang and Kunfu Zhu), Journal of Comparative Economics, 43(2015): 3-18.
[9] “Measuring China’s Trade Liberalization: A Generalized Measure of Trade Restrictiveness Index”, (with Bo Chen and Yuan Xu) Journal of Comparative Economics, 42(2014): 994-1006. Data on Trade Elasticities.
[8] “Trade Facilitation and the Extensive Margin of Exports”, (with Rob Feenstra), Japanese Economic Review. Vol.65(2), June 2014.
[7] “Who Shrunk China? Puzzles in the Measurement of Real GDP”, (with Rob Feenstra, Peter Neary, and Prasada Rao), NBER Working Paper #17729; Economic Journal, 123 (December): 1100-1129.
[6] “Contractual Versus Non-Contractual Trade: the Role of Institutions in China”,(with Rob Feenstra, Chang Hong, and Barbara Spencer), NBER Working Paper #17728; Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. V94: 281-294, October 2013.
[5] “Import Variety and Welfare Gain in China” (with Bo Chen), Review of International Economics, 2012, Vol.20(4)
[4] “Spatial Spillover Effects and Regional Economic Growth in China” , 2012, (with Chong-En Bai, and Wenqing Pan), China Economic Review, Vol.23(4):982-990
[3] “Trade Restrictiveness and Deadweight Loss in China’s Imports”, (with Bo Chen), Frontier of Economics in China, 2012 Vol.7(3)
[2] “The Effects of Domestic Climate Change Measures on International Competitiveness”, (with Hiau-Looi Kee and Muthukumara Mani), World Economy, 2010 vol. 33(6): 820-829, (previously the World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 5309.)
[1] “Consistent Comparisons of Real Incomes across Time and Space”, (with Rob Feenstra and Prasada Rao), Macroeconomic Dynamics, 2009 vol. 13s:169-193
Book Chapters:
[1] “Optimal Choice of Product Scope for Multiproduct Firms under Monopolistic Competition”,(with Rob Feenstra), in E. Helpman, D. Marin and T. Verdier, eds., The Organization of Firms in a Global Economy, Harvard University Press. 2008. (Previously the NBER Working Paper #13703.)
[2] Shunli Yao, Hong Ma, and Jiaosuo Pei “Import Uses and Domestic Value Added in Chinese Exports: What can we learn from Chinese micro data?” in “Measuring Globalization: Vol. 2, Factoryless Manufacturing, Global Supply Chains, and Trade in Intangibles and Data”, Susan N. Houseman and Michael Mandel, eds. 2015. Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
[3] Hong Ma “Exporting Like China: China's Foreign Trade over 1978-2018”,(in Chinese) 张军、王永钦主编《改革开放四十年》第9章,格致出版社
check my IDEAS page and SSRN page for recent working papers.
Editorial Services:
Associate Editor, Journal of Comparative Economics
Associate Editor, China Economic Review
Associate Editor, Review of International Economics
Recent Working Papers:
[New!] "How Do Aggregate Pollution Reduction Mandates Affect Firms’ Emissions? – Evidence from China", with Jiayu Fang, Rui Xie, and Yuan Xu
Studies have shown that environmental regulations can reduce pollution emissions. However, questions such as how emissions are reduced and whether the reduction is efficiently allocated across firms remain underexplored. This paper applies a difference-in-differences estimation approach on firms’ emission behavior before and after a city-based emission regulation was introduced. Cities with larger emission reduction targets saw larger reductions in aggregate emissions in SO2, but didn’t improve on firms’ emission intensity. Emission targets are realized mainly through reducing emissions by large firms, resulting in higher emission intensity. Our findings suggest that less pollutive firms are producing a decreasing share of output, implying an efficiency loss under the aggregate pollution reduction mandates.
[New!] "Super Factory Comes to Town: Identifying the Agglomeration Spillovers from Foxconn Factory in Henan" with Jianpeng Deng, and Hongbing Wei, 2023
[New!] "Reshaping Factory Asia: How Did the US-China Trade War Affect the Asian-Pacific Supply Chain?" with Jingxin Ning, and Yuan Xu, 2023
[New!] "Carbon Tariffs, International Trade and Global Inequality" with Ruobing Qin, 2023
[New!] "The De Minimis Imports During the Pandemic: Evidence from Millions of Online Orders from China" with Kai Liu, Shuzhong Ma, and Gangjian Pan, 2024
[New!] "Tariffs Tax the Poor More: Evidence from Household Consumption During the US-China Trade War” with Luca Macedoni, Jingxin Ning, and Mingzhi(Jimmy) Xu. 2024
Submitted Working Papers:
[1] “Trade and Selection with Heterogeneous Firms and Perfect Competition,” 2021, with Xue Bai, Arpita Chatterjee, Kala Krishna, see the NBER working paper No.30650.
[2] "Soybeans or Planes: Political Power of US Businesses and China's Trade Retaliation", with Lingsheng Meng, Ruobing Qin, and Yuan Xu.
[3] “Parachute with Work and Beyond? Nonstandard Jobs during Trade Conflicts” with Chuan He, He Li, and Mingzhi Xu
[4] "Tit-for-Tat in Antidumping: How Did China Fight its Antidumping Wars with its Trading Partners?" with Wonkyung Lee and Yuan Xu
In this paper, we examine the bilateral relationship between China and its major trading partners in imposing antidumping using quarterly data on antidumping cases from 1997Q1 to 2020Q4. We find that antidumping investigations against China by the US significantly lead to and predict antidumping investigations against the US by China, which suggests that the US is the first mover and China is the follower that retaliates. In contrast, in the bilateral relations between China and the European Union, India, or Japan, there is no evidence of significant causality from either direction.
[5] "The Criminogenic Consequence of Export Slowdown: Evidence from Millions of Court Judgment Documents in China" with Yu Pan, and Mingzhi Xu
previously circulated with the title: "Work or Crook: the Socioconomic Consequence of the Export Slowdown in China"
Applying the textual analysis to millions of judgment documents at all levels of courts in China, we construct measures of crime rates that vary across cities and over the years. Estimations using a shift-share instrumental variable find higher crime rates in cities that experience a more severe export slowdown.
Featured in VoxDev
PUBLICATIONS:
[28] "Optimal Ownership and Firm Performance: An Analysis of China's FDI Liberalization" with Peter Eppinger, CESifo Working paper No. 10551, previously circulated with the title: "Optimal Ownership and Firm Performance: Theory and Evidence from China's FDI Liberalization" Accepted by Review of Economics and Statistics
[27] "Trade Wars and Industrial Policy Competitions: Understanding the US-China Economic Conflicts", with Jiandong Ju, Zi Wang, and Xiaodong Zhu, 2024 Journal of Monetary Economics. previously circulated with the title: ”Trade Wars and Industrial Policy along the Global Value Chains”
[26]"The ``Matthew Effect'' in Rebates: How Does VAT Rebates Allocation Affect Firm Export Performance", (with Bing Lu) 2023 Journal of Public Economics
[25] "Magnification of the "China Shock" Through the US Housing Market" with Rob Feenstra and Yuan Xu. covered by WSJ. 2023 Review of International Economics NBER working paper version.
[24] "Heterogeneous Impacts of the Section 301 Tariffs: Evidence from the Revision of Product Lists" (with Lingsheng Meng), Canadian Journal of Economics. 2023 V56(1)
[23] "China's Skill-complementary Imports”, (with Hongbin Li, and Lei Li), China Economic Review v.74, No.101809
[22] “Trade and Minimum Wages in General Equilibrium: Theory and Evidence”, with Xue Bai, Arpita Chatterjee, and Kala Krishna, 2021, Journal of International Economics (133), No.103535
[21] "An Eye for An Eye? The Trade and Price Effects of China’s Retaliatory Tariffs on U.S. Exports" with Jingxin Ning and Mingzhi Xu, China Economic Review (65), 101685. [The published version has some typesetting error, see paper for the complete working paper version with appendix]
[20] “Trade Policy Uncertainty and Firm Innovation: Firm level Evidence from China's WTO Accession” (with Leo Qing Liu), 2020, Journal of International Economics Data for replication
[19] "Export Tax Rebate and the Margins of Exports: Product Level Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment", (with Wonkyung Lee and Yuan Xu) 2020, International Tax and Public Finance
[18] “Input Trade Liberalization and Firm Markup Distribution: Evidence from China” (with Zhengwen Liu). 2021, Economic Inquiry
[17] “US Exports and Employment” (with Rob Feenstra and Yuan Xu), 2019, Journal of International Economics Vol120: 46-58.
covered in VOX,and WSJ
[16] “How Political Incentives Affect Chinese OFDI: A U.N. Security Council Membership Perspective”. (with Yue Teng) World Economy 2018,41(12): 3416-3441
[15] “How You Export Matters: Choice of Export Modes and the Evolution of Productivity”, (with Xue Bai, and Kala Krishna), Journal of International Economics, vol. 104(1): 122-137, 2017
[14] "Recasting the Iron Rice Bowl: The Evolution of China's State Owned Enterprises" (with Daniel Berkowitz, and Shuichiro Nishioka). Review of Economics and Statistics, 2017, 99(4): 735-747
[13] “Revisiting the Effective Rate of Protection in the Late Stages of Chinese Industrialization” (with David Jacks and Bo Chen),World Economy, 2017 40(2): 424-438.
[12]“How do Exchange Rate Movements Affect Chinese Exports: A Firm-Level Investigation” (with Hongbin Li, Yuan Xu), Journal of International Economics, 2015. V.97(1):148-161.
[11] “Gross Job Creation and Destruction in China ” (with Xue Qiao and Yuan Xu) Journal of Comparative Economics 43 (2015): 1085-1100
[10] “Domestic Value-Added in China’s Exports and Its Distribution by Firm Ownership” (with Zhi Wang and Kunfu Zhu), Journal of Comparative Economics, 43(2015): 3-18.
[9] “Measuring China’s Trade Liberalization: A Generalized Measure of Trade Restrictiveness Index”, (with Bo Chen and Yuan Xu) Journal of Comparative Economics, 42(2014): 994-1006. Data on Trade Elasticities.
[8] “Trade Facilitation and the Extensive Margin of Exports”, (with Rob Feenstra), Japanese Economic Review. Vol.65(2), June 2014.
[7] “Who Shrunk China? Puzzles in the Measurement of Real GDP”, (with Rob Feenstra, Peter Neary, and Prasada Rao), NBER Working Paper #17729; Economic Journal, 123 (December): 1100-1129.
[6] “Contractual Versus Non-Contractual Trade: the Role of Institutions in China”,(with Rob Feenstra, Chang Hong, and Barbara Spencer), NBER Working Paper #17728; Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. V94: 281-294, October 2013.
[5] “Import Variety and Welfare Gain in China” (with Bo Chen), Review of International Economics, 2012, Vol.20(4)
[4] “Spatial Spillover Effects and Regional Economic Growth in China” , 2012, (with Chong-En Bai, and Wenqing Pan), China Economic Review, Vol.23(4):982-990
[3] “Trade Restrictiveness and Deadweight Loss in China’s Imports”, (with Bo Chen), Frontier of Economics in China, 2012 Vol.7(3)
[2] “The Effects of Domestic Climate Change Measures on International Competitiveness”, (with Hiau-Looi Kee and Muthukumara Mani), World Economy, 2010 vol. 33(6): 820-829, (previously the World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 5309.)
[1] “Consistent Comparisons of Real Incomes across Time and Space”, (with Rob Feenstra and Prasada Rao), Macroeconomic Dynamics, 2009 vol. 13s:169-193
Book Chapters:
[1] “Optimal Choice of Product Scope for Multiproduct Firms under Monopolistic Competition”,(with Rob Feenstra), in E. Helpman, D. Marin and T. Verdier, eds., The Organization of Firms in a Global Economy, Harvard University Press. 2008. (Previously the NBER Working Paper #13703.)
[2] Shunli Yao, Hong Ma, and Jiaosuo Pei “Import Uses and Domestic Value Added in Chinese Exports: What can we learn from Chinese micro data?” in “Measuring Globalization: Vol. 2, Factoryless Manufacturing, Global Supply Chains, and Trade in Intangibles and Data”, Susan N. Houseman and Michael Mandel, eds. 2015. Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
[3] Hong Ma “Exporting Like China: China's Foreign Trade over 1978-2018”,(in Chinese) 张军、王永钦主编《改革开放四十年》第9章,格致出版社
Work In Progress:
[1] "Trade Fair and Exporter Performance", (with Kala Krishna and Xue Bai.)
[2] "Why Small Chinese Firms Can’t Grow?” (with Yuan Xu)
[3] "Trade War Along the Global Value Chains" (with Jiandong Ju, Zi Wang, and Xiaodong Zhu), 2019
[4] "Estimating the Impact of Tariffs on US Exports to China: The Case of Recent Trade War between China and the United States", 2019
[5] "Imbalanced and Irreciprocal: What do we really know about China-U.S. Trade?" (with Ruobing Qin), 2019
Grants:
[1] National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Grant No. 71673160, “Trade Openness and Firm Innovation”.
[2] National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Grant No. 71203114, “Estimating the Real Effects of Interventionist Policies in China: Structural and Reduced-Form Approaches”.
[3] MINORU KOBAYASHI China Economic Research Fund
[4] Tsinghua Research Grant, “The Impact of International Trade on China’s Labor Market”
Services:
Outside Expert/Reviewer for: Ministry of Commerce (商务部); Ministry of Education (教育部);Ministry of Science and Technology(科技部); National Science Foundation of China(自然科学基金委); Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong; Stavanger University (Norway); Chinese University of Hong Kong
DORMANT PAPERS:
“Firm Sorting, Ownership and Product Scope: Evidence from Chinese Enterprises” , Nov. 2011
“Product Rationalization and Trade Liberalization”, DEC, 2008
[1] "Trade Fair and Exporter Performance", (with Kala Krishna and Xue Bai.)
[2] "Why Small Chinese Firms Can’t Grow?” (with Yuan Xu)
[3] "Trade War Along the Global Value Chains" (with Jiandong Ju, Zi Wang, and Xiaodong Zhu), 2019
[4] "Estimating the Impact of Tariffs on US Exports to China: The Case of Recent Trade War between China and the United States", 2019
[5] "Imbalanced and Irreciprocal: What do we really know about China-U.S. Trade?" (with Ruobing Qin), 2019
Grants:
[1] National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Grant No. 71673160, “Trade Openness and Firm Innovation”.
[2] National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Grant No. 71203114, “Estimating the Real Effects of Interventionist Policies in China: Structural and Reduced-Form Approaches”.
[3] MINORU KOBAYASHI China Economic Research Fund
[4] Tsinghua Research Grant, “The Impact of International Trade on China’s Labor Market”
Services:
Outside Expert/Reviewer for: Ministry of Commerce (商务部); Ministry of Education (教育部);Ministry of Science and Technology(科技部); National Science Foundation of China(自然科学基金委); Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong; Stavanger University (Norway); Chinese University of Hong Kong
DORMANT PAPERS:
“Firm Sorting, Ownership and Product Scope: Evidence from Chinese Enterprises” , Nov. 2011
“Product Rationalization and Trade Liberalization”, DEC, 2008