This study evaluates whether electric vehicles (EVs) in China have delivered on their “green” promise by improving air quality and reducing private ownership costs. Combining city–month data on EV adoption and air pollution with detailed vehicle-level transaction records, we find little evidence that rising EV adoption reduces concentrations of major pollutants or greenhouse gases. Both the traditional instrumental variable (IV) and the Bartik IV estimations show that the null effects persist after addressing potential endogeneity. The limited environmental gains are largely attributable to the continued dominance of coal in electricity generation and to a sizable rebound effect whereby lower operating costs increase vehicle usage. On the private side, although EVs reduce energy expenditures by roughly CNY 16,747, their faster depreciation leads to an average net loss of about CNY 18,175 over the ownership period relative to fuel vehicles (FVs). Counterfactual simulations show that EVs match the emissions of fuel vehicles when the coal share falls to about 55%, deliver measurable benefits below 49%, and require a reduction to around 31% once higher utilization is considered. The results show that the environmental benefits from EV adoption depend on a transition toward cleaner electricity generation.

This paper studies the unintended spillover effects of China's 2020 "Three Red Lines" policy – a macroprudential intervention aimed at deleveraging real estate developers – on employment in the upstream manufacturing firms. Exploiting variation in industries' exposure to the real estate sector via input-output linkages and employing a generalized difference-in-differences (DID) design on panel data of listed manufacturing firms (2017-2022), we find a significant decline in employment among upstream suppliers, while there is no substantial effect on downstream firms. We identify two transmission channels: a demand propagation channel, evidenced by falling sales and inventory overhang, and a balance sheet contagion channel, where liquidity strain is passed upstream via extended payables and a shift to riskier short-term debt. Furthermore, we show that downward nominal wage rigidity shaped the adjustment, as firms resorted to layoffs rather than wage cuts for ordinary workers. From a regional labor market perspective, the employment losses represent a net reduction at the aggregate level, as displaced workers are not absorbed by other local firms in the same city or province. Our study reveals a significant real economic cost of sectoral macroprudential regulation and clarifies how such shocks propagate through production networks and interact with labor market frictions.

This paper explores the impact of the Integrated Government Service Platform (IGSP) reform, a large-scale digital regulatory initiative in China, on firms’ investment efficiency. Using a firm-level panel dataset of Chinese listed firms, we find that the IGSP reform significantly enhances firms’ investment efficiency. Mechanism analyses indicate that the IGSP enhances firms’ investment efficiency by improving governance service quality and convergence of governance services across cities within a province, thereby reducing economic policy uncertainty and reinforcing market expectations. The heterogeneity analyses reveal that the effect is more pronounced for firms without political connections, those operating in high business volatility and high-tech industries, and regions with stronger informal institutions. Finally, the IGSP encourages firms to expand their investment activities to other cities within the same province. This finding is fully consistent with the underlying mechanisms identified in this study. Our findings provide novel evidence on the economic consequences of digital regulatory integration and offer policy implications for advancing service-oriented and efficiency-driven governance in developing economies.

This paper studies the role of the soft budget constraint in shaping firm dynamics and long-run economic growth. We develop a Schumpeterian model with two sectors: consumption and investment, and two types of firms: state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs). Within this framework, multi-product firms require fixed inputs of investment goods to operate — a resource that is also crucial for firm expansion, and the soft budget constraint allows subsidized firms to continue operating on loss-making product lines. This distortion raises the price of investment goods, suppresses firm dynamics, and dampens aggregate growth. To quantify the mechanism, the model is calibrated using Chinese firm-level data. Our quantitative exercise shows that eliminating the SOE soft budget constraint friction reduces the price of investment goods by 9.82 percent, increases the overall TFP growth rate by 0.12 percentage points, and generates a welfare gain of 4.94 percent.

This paper examines how traditional informal institutions shape preferences for old-age support and the emergence of initiative-based long-term financial planning. Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study combined with clan genealogy records, we estimate the causal impact of exposure to clan culture on old-age support preferences. We find that stronger exposure to clan culture in early life is associated with a higher likelihood of adopting modern preferences for old-age support, characterized by greater reliance on self-initiated savings and pension participation rather than dependence on children. The results are robust to instrumental variable estimation and placebo test. Importantly, the effect operates exclusively through exposure to clan culture during early life, while clan culture encountered in adulthood has no significant influence, particularly among individuals who relocate later in life. Mechanism analysis suggests that peer effects, generalized trust, income growth, and financial literacy jointly mediate the relationship between clan culture and old-age support preferences. We further show that the expansion of the formal pension system complements, rather than crowds out, the influence of clan culture, consistent with a process of co-evolution between informal and formal institutions. The effects are stronger among individuals with favorable attitudes toward clans, rural residents, and men. Finally, modern preferences induced by clan culture translate into higher pension participation and larger financial asset holdings. Overall, the findings highlight how informal institutions can shape economic preferences and facilitate the adoption of formal financial arrangements.

The emphasis on environmental sustainability outcomes (ESO) in emerging economies has increased recently, requiring in-depth research to manage the complex interplay between socioeconomic and sociopolitical factors. With a particular focus on China, this study describes this significant relationship using a good technique that comprises standardized questionnaires administered to a large sample of different organizational levels. This research examined several factors and their effects on ESO. First, the results show that the kind of economic system (EST) directly affects ESO; no direct relationship was discovered between ESO and the industrialization level (LI). Furthermore, it was demonstrated that government funding for eco-sustainability projects (GFESP) and community engagement and eco-education initiatives (CEEEI) had a direct impact on ESO. Secondly, the results demonstrated that implementing eco-policies and regulations (IEPR) had a full mediating effect between EST and ESO. Third, political instability (PI) and corruption level (CL), which are essentially the outcome of China's current political and environmental issues, diminish the correlation between EST and ESO. These findings demonstrate that China's environmental sustainability has to be improved using a multimodal approach. The public is encouraged to push legislators to bolster eco-laws and policies in order to emphasize environmental preservation. Initiatives to reduce corruption and maintain political stability may also bolster the beneficial effects of economic frameworks on ESO.

This paper exploits China’s culture-oriented institutional reform as a quasinatural experiment to examine the impact of cultural policies on water pollution. Using a difference-in-differences approach with city-level panel data from 2003 to 2020, we find that the reform leads to a significant reduction in water pollution in pilot cities. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the effect is more pronounced in cities with better economic performance, higher administrative status, richer tourism resources, and more abundant human capital. The reform prompts a shift in local industrial structure toward less-polluting sectors, with a marked contraction in pollution-intensive activities. It also strengthens local environmental regulation and enhances green innovation, thereby contributing to pollution reduction. Our findings highlight the spillover environmental effects of policies not explicitly designed for environmental purposes.

This article views the economic development history of New China as a history of openness and constant adjustment. We examine China’s economic development and early open policies from 1953 to 1978, analyze how the nation navigated between planned and open economic models during the formative period. Through a comprehensive review ofthe key Chinese and Western scholarship, investigates major initiatives including the Soviet-assisted 156 Projects, First Five-Year Plan, The policy of Eight Characters and the later “Four Three Plan” of the Western engagement. The study highlights both achievements and challenges, particularly in industrial growth and technology transfer, while assessing the impact of critical events like the Sino-Soviet split. Statistical analysis and quantitative models demonstrate how these early experiments with economic openness, despite ideological constraints and operational difficulties, established crucial institutional and technological foundations for China’s subsequent reform and modernization. The findings offer valuable insights into China’s unique development path and its implications for emerging economies.

This paper investigates the outstanding economic and scientific-technological achievements of the Soviet Union during the 1945–1953 period and analyzes how these successes influenced New China’s decision to adopt the Soviet development model. Drawing upon a review of the key Chinese studies and the influential Western works, this study synthesizes diverse research methods,including historical institutional analysis, archival research, and econometric modeling, to examine the driving forces behind Soviet economic development, its quantitative achievements, and its evolving international status relative to the United States. Moreover, the paper reviews the development of Sino-Soviet relations during both the Kuomintang era and the early years of the People’s Republic of China, and it provides a comprehensive factor analysis of why New China chose to introduce the “Soviet model.” The paper also discusses recent quantitative research that employs statistical models to assess the impact of Soviet achievements on China’s economic planning. The findings underscore that the rapid reconstruction and modernization of the Soviet economy not only set new benchmarks in industrial output and scientific progress but also provided a persuasive example that shaped China’s early development strategy.

The development of industrialization runs through the history of the People’s Republic of China. In the early years of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Soviet Union provided important help for China’s industrialization construction, capital lending, talent training and technology transfer. By analyzing the proportion of China’s industrial output value in the total output value and the output of major industrial products during the period of the Soviet Union, it shows that the assistance of the Soviet Union had a very positive role in promoting the realization of ChinaIs industrialization, and helped China to lay the foundation of industrialization.In addition, some problems in accepting the Soviet Union’s aid to China also deserve our attention when promoting the new industrialization. The research explores both the internal and external factors that led to China’s acceptance of Soviet assistance.The study examines the political, economic, and historical contexts that created a favorable environment for such aid, analyzes the various modes and scales of the assistance implemented, and presents statistical data that underscore the transformative social and economic achievements derived from this partnership.Furthermore, the paper highlights the contributions of quantitative analyses in understanding the aid’s impact, discusses the experiences and lessons learned from the Soviet aid period, and assesses the evolving dynamics of Sino—Soviet relations,particularly the gradual divergence in economic development models. The findings shed light on how Soviet aid laid the groundwork for China’s industrialization while also foreshadowing future ideological and developmental separations.