Work in Progress
Lost Green Leaders: Is China’s Green Financial Regulations Efficient? with Qi Pan and Xiaoming Xie
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Abstract: We examine China's Green Credit Policy, a green finance instrument incentivizing firms' environmental performance through conditional financial support. Using firm-level longitudinal data and a difference-in-differences design, we find that while the ratio of green innovation increased annually by 2.3%, the quality, measured by patent citations, declined by 0.079. Low-quality green innovations, while secured financial support, crowded out other sectors and caused negative spillover effects. Analyzing the effects of the green credit policy across firms at varying distances from the green technology frontier, we identify misalignment and inefficiency in green credit allocation. Firms with stronger green innovation capabilities experienced a more pronounced decline in both the quantity and quality of green innovations.
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Presented at Southern Economic Association (SEA) Annual Conference, NAREA EJ Circle, HKUST brownbag
The Recovery of Forest and its Impacts on Left-Behind Children in Western China, with Christopher Timmins
(Draft available upon request)
Abstract: This paper explores the effectiveness of these policies on afforestation on rural families (including adultsand children) considering policy-induced land transition and labor migration. Embedding changes in land use and labor allocation in the triple difference approach and the instrumental variable approach, we extend afforestation studies in three dimensions: characterizing its short- and long-run effects on income and off-farm migration, estimating its spillover effects on Left Behind Children, and evaluating its distributional welfare effects. The results provide evidence of negative effects on vulnerable groups and left-behind children, showing that lower-income rural adults are significantly more likely to out-migrate for urban jobs corresponding to afforestation induced land transition. Though children are less likely to quit schools due to compensation from afforestation and remittance, left-behind children’s education performance and life attainments including marriage, health, and income in adulthood are adversely affected. Afforestation policies have regressive impacts and favor wealthy families and families with less arable land. Provided that the PES policy was designed to protect forest resources as well as alleviate poverty in rural areas, the differential welfare
results raise the concern of environmental justice in policy design and evaluations.
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Presented at Western Economic Association (WEAI) Annual Conference, Southern Economic Association (SEA) Annual Conference, AARES Conference, NAREA Scholar Circle
Impacts of Transportation Infrastructure on Labor Market and Residential Mobility: the Effects of New Metro Lines in Los Angeles, with Chris Severen
High-speed Rail and Migration in China, with Deyu Rao, Lin Yang and Yatang Lin
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