Working Paper:
Social Networks, Career Incentives and Interregional Trade in China
Free movement of goods in domestic market is crucial for large economies to achieve the economy of scale, but intra-national trade frictions are still widely-observed in some countries. Taking advantages of direct allocations of regional leaders by central government in China, this paper studies how the career incentives and social networks of local leaders influence interregional trade in China. Using the data on interregional railway cargo from 2001 to 2015, I find that, social networks of local leaders help them to reduce trade costs and increase the trade volumes between connected regions. At the same time, promotion tournaments between local leaders create trade frictions and can lead to lower bilateral trade between competitors. In terms of the mechanisms, we study the content of articles published in government-owned newspapers. This analysis reveals that connections or competition between local leaders also affect the number of articles on interregional economic activities, providing direct evidence of the efforts of local leaders to push the interregional economic cooperation. Also, we find that local leaders with greater career concerns are more likely to put into place import restrictions to help local firms grow.
The Power of Officials Speeches: Evidence from China
This paper looks at how the political sensitivity would affect the financial market. Investors' expectations shape stock market variability, being sensitive to new information released. However, the effect of newly released information depends on how investors interpret it, which in turn, can depend on the political culture. Different cultural backgrounds can lead to different interpretations of the same message, even if the message recipients are profit motivated. Using the data from the public speeches of Premier in China, Wen Jiabao, about real estate industry, this chapter finds investors in mainland China stock market are sensitive to these political speeches. They change their investment decisions immediately, which are reflected both in the stock prices and transaction volumes. At the same time, similar firms traded in Hong Kong stock market are not influenced by Wen's speeches at all, although these firms, listed in Hong Kong stock market, derive large share of profits from the housing market in China. Further, I find both mainland and Hong Kong investors are equally sensitive to the policy announcements, relevant to their businesses. This implies that the stock market reaction to public speeches in China is due to the political implications, contained in the speeches, but not new information about fundamental change.