ABSTRACT Despite substantial increases in welfare expenditure since the 2000s, Korea continues to exhibit the highest relative old‐age poverty rate among advanced economies, while absolute poverty remains a significant concern. This study applies both relative and absolute poverty thresholds and employs fixed‐effects ordered logistic regression using panel data to examine trends and determinants of old‐age poverty. The results show that the absolute poverty rate declined markedly from 38.2% in 2003 to 14.5% in 2022, whereas the relative poverty rate remained largely unchanged, falling only from 48.6% to 44.4%. Poverty rates have shown little improvement since 2015, aside from a temporary decline during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Public pensions and means‐tested benefits are strongly associated with reductions in absolute poverty. However, given the limited coverage of the social security system, sufficient earned income remains essential for escaping relative poverty. These findings suggest a two‐step policy approach: expanding social security to reduce absolute poverty, while strengthening work incentives to address relative poverty. Overall, this study provides policy‐relevant insights for countries facing similar challenges related to population ageing and welfare development.
ABSTRACT Agricultural green production technologies (GPTs) are critical for mitigating the negative environmental impacts of farming activities. However, farmers' willingness to adopt GPTs heavily depends on their impact on farmers' earnings, which can considerably vary. Empirical evidence so far has been inconclusive or contradictory regarding the impact of GPTs adoption on income distribution. This study uses survey data from 2034 farming households across 14 provinces in China to empirically investigate how GPTs adoption influences farmers' income and income distribution. We found a significant increase in the agricultural and total household income of farmers who adopted GPTs compared to those who did not. GPTs contribute to farmer's income growth through three main channels: reducing pesticide inputs increasing sales revenue from agricultural products and boosting agricultural output. Moreover, GPTs adoption has heterogenous effects on farmers' incomes. Farmers who are highly educated, relatively richer and operated larger farms tended to benefit more from adopting GPTs. Consequently, GPTs adoption exacerbates income inequality in rural society. Overall, this study highlights the potential side effects of promoting GPTs and calls for actions to address the distributional impacts of these environmental initiatives.
ABSTRACT Understanding how families respond to public education spending is critical for effective policy design. While parental involvement is widely recognised as a key determinant of children's educational success, little is known about whether and how public subsidies shape such involvement. This paper examines the impact of free textbooks—a major in‐kind public education subsidy in China—on four dimensions of parental involvement: attending school meetings, helping with homework, talking with children about school life and thoughts and resolving differences through discussion. Using two waves of the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) and employing a propensity score matching and difference‐in‐differences (PSM‐DID) approach, I find that access to free textbooks significantly increases parents' participation in school meetings, frequency of parent–child communication and likelihood of resolving conflicts through discussion. Mechanism analysis reveals that these effects operate through enhanced parental confidence in children's future and improved student academic performance. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the policy effects are more pronounced among female students and vary by parental education and regional development levels. These findings suggest that public education subsidies can crowd in family investments by shaping parental beliefs and children's outcomes. The results have important implications for promoting educational equity through targeted policy design.
ABSTRACT This study constructs a quasi‐natural experiment on a dual pilot policy comprising the National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone and Demonstration Zones for Innovative Development of Trade in Services. Using data from Chinese A‐share listed manufacturing companies from 2010 to 2023, this study examines how the opening up of trade in services in the digital era affects companies' labor structure. Findings indicate the following. (1) The dual pilot policy significantly increases the personnel share of the high‐skilled labor force of companies in pilot cities. (2) The dual pilot policy promotes the upgrading of companies' labor structure by alleviating financing constraints and enhancing specialization level. (3) The structural upgrading effect of the dual pilot policy is more pronounced in state‐owned companies and companies facing stronger market competition, engaged in emerging advantageous industries, and located in the central and western regions.
We examined the hidden wage differences between gaming, a dominant sector of the small open economy, Macao, and non-gaming. The findings reveal significant and persistent wage gaps between the gaming industry and other sectors of the economy, even after accounting for labour-market differences. Croupiers earned the highest wage premium among occupations. This is consistent with rent sharing and labour supply restrictions. Casino concessionaires are well-capitalized and licensed, possessing strong market power that generates substantial profits. They share these profits with their employees through higher salaries, a practice endorsed by both the local government and the public. Additionally, croupier positions are limited to residents, allowing them to enjoy the largest wage premia among professions. The wage premia for gaming workers may have decreased as a result of casino businesses' operating surpluses declining sharply during COVID-19.
This paper examines how agricultural disasters shape rural-to-urban migration in China, with a focus on migrant selection and the role of same-origin networks. We exploit exogenous shocks from agricultural disasters to study whether migrants are positively or negatively selected. Our results show that agricultural disasters increase the likelihood of migration while reducing the average skill level of migrants, consistent with the 'positive selection' hypothesis. We further find that disaster-induced migrants are disproportionately more likely to relocate to cities with larger pre-existing migrant networks from home regions. Finally, the observed skill composition of new migrants is positively associated with the skill levels of pre-existing same-origin migrants at destination, consistent with network-related mechanisms such as information sharing and spillover effects.
This study aims to examine the effects of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) on technical change (TC) and the scale component (SC)-the two primary constituents of total factor productivity (TFP)-by firm size and ex-post M&A time horizon (i.e., short-term vs. long-term effects). We conduct an empirical analysis on Korean firms using a covariate balancing propensity score methodology, which is the most advanced technique for propensity score matching. The main finding is that while firms can achieve technological advancements through M&A, they may not achieve optimal scale. Moreover, we find that large firms have M&A motives from a long-term perspective and perform M&A due to technological motives, while small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have M&A motives from a short-term perspective for a one-point solution. This suggests that the motives of M&A are not uniform across large firms and SMEs and that they may prioritise different strategic objectives when undertaking M&A transactions.
This paper explores drivers of earnings satisfaction in South Korea using Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) data for 2009-2023. We find that both earnings level and earnings rank are associated with higher earnings satisfaction, highlighting the importance of both absolute and relative pay. While the positive associations of earnings are stronger for men, the negative associations of work hours are stronger for women. Personal performance pay is linked to lower satisfaction for men, whereas company performance pay is linked to higher satisfaction for women. Men exhibit a midlife dip in earnings satisfaction, and marriage is associated with lower satisfaction for men but higher satisfaction for women. Self-employment and years of tenure are linked to lower earnings satisfaction, while for women, daily employment is linked to higher satisfaction. These findings are benchmarked against job and life satisfaction, and the research and policy implications are discussed in the conclusion.
With the rapid development of China's economy, green finance has emerged as a pivotal instrument for promoting corporate green transformation and sustainable development. Using data from Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2022, this study adopts a generalised difference-in-differences (DID) approach to assess the influence of green credit interest subsidy policies on corporate environmental governance performance (GGP). The results demonstrate that these subsidies significantly contribute to enhancing firm's governance performance. Mechanism analysis reveals that the improvement in GGP is primarily driven by reduced financing costs and heightened environmental attention. Moreover, further analysis shows that the policy effects vary significantly across firms of different types and sizes. Firms characterised by higher institutional ownership, stronger profitability, and those in non-heavy pollution industries exhibit more pronounced improvements in GGP under the green credit subsidy policy. This study provides robust empirical evidence in support of sustainable development and offers valuable insights for the optimisation of green finance policies.
This paper investigates the causal impact of Cross-Border E-commerce (CBEC) on China's import trade costs, focusing on the mitigation of non-geographic barriers. We first quantify China's bilateral trade costs using a structural trade-cost measurement framework. To establish causality, we employ a Difference-in-Differences (DID) model with a novel, industry-level identification strategy based on the official 'CBEC Retail Import Commodity List'. Results show that the CBEC policy significantly lowers overall import trade costs. Furthermore, by constructing a detailed Linguistic Barrier Index, we find that the negative impact of linguistic barriers substantially diminishes under the CBEC model, enabling freer trade despite language differences. We also note the persistent role of English as a trade lingua franca. These findings offer a novel identification strategy and hold important implications for CBEC enterprises seeking strategic localisation in multilingual markets.JEL Classification: F14, Z13
Using empirical data from China, this paper empirically studies the impact of alumni networks amongst business people on firms' green innovation. Empirical results show that the chairperson's core position in the alumni network can increase a firm's green innovations. The social connections of chairpersons have a reputation motivation effect on green innovation. Besides, social networks complement formal institutions during economic transition in emerging markets. When the regulation from formal institutions is weak, such as when environmental regulation is weak, or the firm is not on the list of pollution monitoring by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the effect of alumni networks is more significant. The effect of the alumni network on economic activities is subtle and still exists even in regions with a high degree of marketization. But it should not be ignored that the positive effect is more significant on strategic green innovation than on substantive green innovation.
This study revisits Bangladesh's competitive edge by examining patterns of global apparel trade during the post-Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) era using a large bilateral panel of 27 leading apparel exporters trading with 163 destinations with coverage of 90% of the world apparel exports. Utilising a theory-consistent structural gravity framework estimated with the Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimator, this study finds that long geographical distance from major markets such as the US and the EU has not placed Bangladesh in a specific disadvantageous position in this industry. While standard gravity expectations suggest that remoteness should penalise distant Asian suppliers, the results reveal a more nuanced pattern. Bangladesh's exports are less affected by distance at the aggregate level, and for core basic apparel items such as T-shirts and denim trousers, the Bangladesh-distance interaction is positive and statistically significant, with contiguity turning negative. This reflects product specialisation, whereby global buyers source standardised, time-insensitive apparel from distant but low-cost, scale-efficient suppliers. Wage competitiveness and bilateral real exchange rate (RER) conditions are also associated with performance, although interpreted as correlated rather than strictly causal. Overall, the findings suggest that Bangladesh successfully leveraged specialisation, scale and cost advantage to overcome the 'tyranny of distance' in the post-MFA global apparel market.
This paper investigates the moderating role of bank competition in the link between monetary policy and corporate investment, using data from Vietnamese commercial banks and non-financial listed firms from 2007 to 2023. After verifying the corporate investment channel of monetary policy, we show that higher bank competition enhances the effectiveness of monetary policy in driving corporate investment. Further analysis reveals that this effect is especially pronounced among bank-dependent firms, which rely heavily on external financing from banks and thus respond more strongly to policy shifts in competitive banking markets. Besides, state-owned firms, which benefit from government-backed financial support, exhibit a weaker response to the combined effects of bank competition and monetary policy than private firms. Our results suggest that promoting a competitive banking sector could strengthen the impact of monetary policy on corporate investment, particularly for firms reliant on bank financing and non-state-owned firms.
Green total factor productivity (GTFP) has been used to assess the degree of economic growth and environmental protection. Therefore this study treats GTFP and China's national innovative city pilot policy (NICPP) as research objects, using panel data from 270 prefecture-level cities between 2007 and 2022. The empirical results demonstrate that NICPP significantly promotes GTFP, with the effect being more pronounced in cities characterised by strong market potential, favourable locational conditions, sound business credit environments, and weaker foundations in traditional industry. Mechanism analysis in a further step reveals that the policy primarily affects GTFP through four channels: promoting digital financial inclusion, increasing government attention to digital technologies, optimising urban functional division, and optimising R&D capital allocation efficiency. These outcomes offer empirical evidence and valuable options for the enhancement of GTFP.
Since joining the WTO, China has seen rapid growth in agricultural imports, accompanied by the signing of an increasing number of regional trade agreements (RTAs). This study aims to investigate how RTAs influence China's agricultural imports using HS 6-digit level data on agricultural trade and tariffs between China and its 121 partner countries from 2002 to 2021, with a focus on disentangling the respective roles of tariffs and non-tariff changes. The research finds that both tariffs and non-tariff changes of China's RTAs significantly boost agricultural imports, with non-tariff changes exerting a stronger effect, and the effects are larger for imports from developing countries. By product, tariff cuts broadly raise imports but are weak or even negative for sensitive cereals and animal products, whereas non-tariff changes mainly facilitate imports in land, capital, and technology-intensive and processed sectors, including horticultural and animal-based products, where China lacks comparative advantages.
Improving government-business relations is critical to fostering entrepreneurship. Using panel data from 282 Chinese cities over 2017-2022, this study empirically examines the impact of government-business relations on entrepreneurship. The findings are as follows: (1) Government-business relations stimulate both innovation entrepreneurship and business entrepreneurship, particularly when the relations are close. (2) For innovation entrepreneurship, this positive effect is stronger in non-resource-based cities, central cities, and transportation hub cities. For business entrepreneurship, the effect is more pronounced in port cities, cities with flat terrain, and cities with a better commercial credit environment. (3) Mechanism tests indicate that government-business relations foster both types of entrepreneurship by enhancing market potential, reducing institutional costs and improving environmental governance performance. These findings not only enrich the theoretical understanding of the relationship between government-business relations and entrepreneurship but also deepen insights into how institutional environments influence innovation and business, providing policy implications for local governments to optimise government-business relations, improve the business environment, and promote innovation and business.
This study uses enterprise price mark-up to comprehensively investigate the net value of the positive spillover and negative competition effects associated with mutual recognition of geographical indications to export enterprises and constructs a price mark-up model. Utilising data from Chinese listed companies and Chinese Customs from 2007 to 2016, it empirically examines the effect and mechanism of mutual geographical indication (GI) recognition between China and the EU on the price mark-up of exported agricultural products using a multiple time point difference-in-differences model. The relevant results are fourfold. (1) Mutual GI recognition between China and the EU increases enterprises' price mark-up of exported agricultural products. (2) Regarding mechanisms, the effect of mutual GI recognition on enterprises' price mark-up of exported agricultural products reveals positive quality-upgrading spillover effects and efficiency enhancement in addition to negative market competition and cost increase effects. (3) A heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the positive effect of mutual GI recognition on enterprises' price mark-up of exported agricultural products is greater for enterprises exporting primary agricultural products, core products and exported to EU countries. This is attributed to such enterprises having stronger cost-shifting and factor-adjustment capabilities. (4) Mutual GI recognition is also found to reduce the dispersion of firms' price mark-ups and significantly improve resource allocation efficiency. Based on GTAP simulations, expanding China-EU mutual recognition of GIs through a targeted strategy is projected to sustainably increase Chinese agricultural exporters' price mark-ups by 1.6730 percentage points and their net profit by 5.7670%.
