This paper examines how accelerated population aging affects entrepreneurship in China. We find that faster aging significantly reduces entrepreneurship. The decline is stronger for individual businesses, smaller firms, and tertiary-sector entry. Aging also shifts entry toward larger firms and industries with higher capital intensity and lower R&D intensity. These findings suggest that aging affects business dynamism not only by lowering entry overall, but also by reallocating entry toward activities better able to adapt to labor scarcity through capital substitution.

This paper examines the relationship between population aging and firm entry across Chinese counties. Combining the 2000, 2010, and 2020 population censuses with nationwide business-registration records, we estimate long-difference models and use a leave-one-province-out cohort Bartik instrument. The negative association between aging and firm entry is statistically evident in 2010–2020: a one-percentage-point increase in the aging share is associated with approximately 4.1% lower growth in formal business registrations. This finding is robust to alternative entry measures and sample restrictions. We also document heterogeneous patterns across organizational forms, selected service industries, registered-capital positions, and industries with different capital and R&D intensities. These compositional patterns are less consistent than the decline in entry quantities. Overall, the results provide new evidence that population aging is associated with weaker local business dynamism and changes in the composition of formal firm entry.

This paper examines how air pollution affects the distribution of labor income within firms. We build a within-firm incentive model and show that air pollution, treated as an exogenous shock, reduces production efficiency and increases operating uncertainty. In response, firms compress both employee and executive compensation. Because executive pay carries a larger weight on performance- and equity-based components and is therefore more sensitive to profit volatility, it declines by more, mechanically narrowing within-firm pay dispersion. At the same time, rank-and-file wages display downward rigidity. The result is a “synchronized decline with sharper cuts at the top,” a form of spurious equality. Using 2014–2022 data on non-financial A-share listed firms in China, we find that a 1% increase in air pollution is associated with a 0.37% average decline in labor income. Effects are stronger in labor-intensive firms and in firms with weaker unions. Two-stage least squares estimates indicate real consequences: talent outflows and reduced innovation. By linking air quality to wage setting, human capital, and innovation, our results reveal a sustainability channel through which pollution undermines decent work and inclusive growth—issues of global relevance for urban economies. The mechanisms we document are likely to generalize beyond China and inform integrated policies that combine environmental regulation with labor-market and innovation policy to support a just and sustainable transition.

China now has a higher rate of homeownership than most country counterparts in the world. How might have China’s high homeownership rate affected the employment outcome and efficiency of labor markets? In this study, ‌we challenge the theoretical premise that homeownership reduces labor mobility and employment flexibility by examining China’s migrant data‌. Our key empirical finding is that, at the individual level, compared to renting option, homeownership in destination city does lead to a lower employment probability. Older workers, urban hukou holders, and migrants in destination cities with more than 5 million population are more impaired in employment. The possible mechanisms underlying lower employment propensity lie in that homeownership impedes labor mobility, resulting in lower wage prospect from constrained labor market area which further discourages job search effort. Furthermore, purchase costs associated with homeownership may also lower household disposable income, making it harder to venture into self-employment business. Our study sheds new lights on the importance of incorporating employment creation element within current housing policies, particularly in rapid urbanization era of a transition economy.

This paper investigates the impact of firms' digital transformation on labor income share utilizing a large sample of Chinese-listed enterprises from 2003 to 2020, and we find a negative correlation between digital transformation and enterprise labor income share. The results are robust to changing variable indicators, instrumental variable approach, and Difference-in-Difference method. The impact of enterprise digital transformation on labor income share is more pronounced for industrial industry, technology-intensive, and state-owned firms. Product market competition, employee wage bargaining power, and market size are essential in the relationship between enterprise digital transformation and labor income share. This study reveals that protecting employee rights and maintaining fair competition help weaken enterprise digital transformation's negative impact on labor income share.

在人口红利下降和智能技术应用背景下,如何缓解就业结构性矛盾以最大程度释放人才红利成为学术界关注的重要议题.智能技术应用会显著降低劳动者技能错配的发生概率,其中高学历者、非常规认知型任务从业者在通用性技能维度的错配发生率下降更明显,而中低学历者、常规型和非常规操作型任务从业者在专用性技能维度错配的发生率下降更明显.企业对劳动过程控制的增强和非常规认知任务需求的增加是重要的作用渠道,会分别导致专用性技能降级与通用性技能要求提升,从而降低专用性技能维度技能不足和通用性技能维度技能过度的发生率.评估智能技术应用对技能错配发生率的影响与动力机制,可为制定有针对性的就业配套政策以使智能化引领发展能力提供借鉴和参考.

本文使用世界银行 2012 年中国企业调查数据研究了劳动力市场管制与企业使用机器替代劳动的关系.研究结果表明:劳动力市场管制会促使企业使用机器替代劳动,具体表现为受到更强劳动力市场管制的企业会更多使用机器设备、增加研发投入并减少劳动力雇佣,经过一系列稳健性检验和内生性处理后结论仍然成立,异质性分析发现这一结论主要在东南沿海企业中成立.进一步的研究发现劳动力市场管制主要通过增加劳动力使用的间接成本促使企业使用机器替代劳动.本文的研究为制定更加合理的劳动力市场管制制度,避免过早出现机器替代劳动提供了启示.

This paper uses a nationally representative and large-scale dataset from China to empirically examine the relationship between exercise participation and happiness. To address the problem of reverse causality between the two factors, the instrumental variable (IV) approach is used to deal with endogeneity to some extent. It is demonstrated that higher frequencies of exercise participation are positively related to happiness. Findings also demonstrate that physical exercise could significantly decrease depressive disorders, improves self-rated health conditions and reduces the frequency of health problems affecting people's work and life. At the same time, all of above health factors significantly influence subjective wellbeing. When these health variables are included in regressions, the correlation between exercise participation and happiness declines. This confirms that physical activity helps to improve happiness by enhancing mental and overall health conditions. In addition, results show that physical activities are more prominently related to happiness for male, older and unmarried individuals and those living in rural areas, lacking social security and with higher levels of depression as well as lower socioeconomic status. Furthermore, a series of robustness checks are carried out and exercise participation's positive role in improving happiness is further confirmed using different happiness measures and instrumental variables, various IV models, as well as penalized machine learning methods and placebo tests. With the increasing emphasis of improving happiness as an important goal in the global public health policy, findings of this paper have important policy implications for enhancing subjective wellbeing.

This paper uses a large-scale nationally representative dataset to examine the nonlinear effect of income on mental health. To investigate their causal relationship, the exogenous impact of automation on income is utilized as the instrument variable (IV). In addition, to explore their nonlinear relationship, both income and its quadratic term are included in regressions. It is found that the impact of income on mental health is U-shaped rather than linear. The turning point (7.698) of this nonlinear relation is near the midpoint of the income interval ([0, 16.113]). This suggests that depression declines as income increases at the lower-income level. However, beyond middle income, further increases in income take pronounced mental health costs, leading to a positive relationship between the two factors. We further exclude the possibility of more complex nonlinear relationships by testing higher order terms of income. In addition, robustness checks, using other instrument variables and mental health indicators, different IV models and placebo analysis, all support above conclusions. Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that males, older workers, ethnic minorities and those with lower health and socioeconomic status experience higher levels of depression. Highly educated and urban residents suffer from greater mental disorders after the turning point. Religious believers and Communist Party of China members are mentally healthier at lower income levels, meaning that religious and political beliefs moderate the relationship between income and mental health.

虽然我国脱贫攻坚战取得全面胜利,居民温饱问题得以解决,但农村低收入困难家庭的营养均衡问题仍未被引起足够重视.文章认为,基于消费者选择理论,提高居民营养均衡需要放宽食物预算约束、改变食物消费偏好.但是目前我国转移支付政策的收入提高效应还不具备改善营养均衡的作用,家庭将转移支付主要用于弥补居住方面的不足.通过信息获取改变低收入困难家庭的偏好、建立营养均衡消费理念,可以提高转移支付政策的营养效果.文章建议进一步优化转移支付政策、加强营养教育和营养知识的科普宣传、完善营养均衡的配套措施、发展营养型产业,以改善低收入困难家庭营养均衡.

文章分析劳动力要素的市场化配置体制机制及运转效果,探讨目前影响市场化配置的体制机制障碍,并指出未来的改革方向.改革开放40多年来,中国已基本建立通过市场配置劳动力资源的体制机制,但仍存在一些非竞争因素,不同地区、不同所有制部门、不同行业的技能相似劳动者之间仍存在较大的工资差距.加快要素市场化配置改革,破除妨碍劳动力流动的体制机制障碍,降低企业的雇佣成本以提高其雇佣意愿,规范政府管制使其集中于克服劳动力市场的外部性和效率改进是未来的改革方向.

The complementarity interference (CI) model suggests that the Internet may either inhibit or facilitate interpersonal communications. This paper empirically examines the impact of Internet usage on interpersonal interactions, using a micro dataset from China to answer whether the Internet brings people closer together or further apart. The empirical results demonstrate, first, that Internet usage significantly increases both the time and frequency of people's communications with their family and friends, rather than causing them to feel more disconnected and isolated. Holding other factors constant, for each one-standard-deviation increase in Internet usage, weekly communications with family members increases by an average of 102.150 min, while there is an average increase of 54.838 min in interactions with friends. These findings as to its positive effects are robust when using other regression models and interpersonal contact measures, as well as the instrumental variable method. Second, Internet usage also contributes to decreased loneliness; it exerts this effect primarily by improving people's interactions with their family members. However, communications with friends do not significantly mediate such impacts. Third, the positive role of Internet usage on communications is more prominent for people with more frequent online socialization and self-presentation, better online skills, younger age, higher educational level, and who are living in urban areas. In addition, the beneficial effects of Internet usage are larger for communications with family members in the case of migrants. Therefore, in the context of the rapid development of information technology, the network infrastructure should be improved to make better use of the Internet to facilitate interpersonal communications and promote people's wellness.

促进人才流动是推动区域协调发展的重要路径.本文使用中国劳动力动态调查(CLDS)数据,基于劳动者的迁移经历对工作经验的获得地与使用地进行区分,实证检验劳动者大城市工作经验的工资溢价及其迁移后的变化.研究发现,在控制了城市静态工资溢价后,劳动者在大城市积累的工作经验仍可带来工资溢价,在回流到中小城市后可进一步获得相对回流前更高的溢价.研究结论在稳健性检验后依然成立,且存在就业类型异质性和年龄异质性.本研究从技能提升和工资锚定的角度对工资溢价的来源和变化进行了解释,并发现城市行业结构和基础设施水平均会影响回流溢价的大小.本文为个体城市迁移决策提供参考,通过引导人才合理流动带动区域协调发展.

By empirically testing the scale and structure hypotheses of aging’s impacts on the financial market using Tobit, FRM, and Heckman selection models, this paper proves that the number and proportion of elderly family members change the structure of families’ financial assets, though without significant effects on their overall size. Specifically, aging increases the share of cash and deposits in families’ total financial assets and decreases both the quantity and percentage of investment in risky assets. One more family member aged sixty and over, the risky assets decline by 5, 500RMB and its share decreases by 8.8 percent. A Heckman two-step model verifies the robustness of our results. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that aging plays different roles in different types of financial assets.

Based on the CHARLS data in 2018, this paper investigates the relationship between the health status measured by chronic diseases, working hours and wages of middle-aged and elderly employees from both theoretical and empirical aspects. The research finds:（1）The middle-aged and elderly employees with chronic diseases increase their working hours, which is their way of self-insurance. However, the loss of efficiency caused by chronic diseases will lead to a decline in wages. Chronic diseases increase the burden of medical expenditure and income uncertainty, which is the reason for self-insurance.（2）The increase of working hours and its lost time due to illness squeezes out the time of health investment, resulting in health deterioration.（3）Chronic diseases increase the need for self-insurance among middle-aged and elderly employees of male, agricultural residents, unstable employment, and lower economic status, while increased working hours reduce their health status. Generally speaking, the self-insurance of middle-aged and elderly employees by increasing working hours has limited effect on coping with health shock, but has the risk of health deterioration. Therefore, strengthening the chronic disease management of social medical security, and establishing the employment service system for the middle-aged and the elderly are needed in the future.

China's rapid economic growth is associated with a dramatic flow of migrants from rural to urban areas, some of whom purchase properties in their destination cities. The literature shows that homeownership may reduce owners’ mobility and deteriorate their labor market performance. Using data from the 2016 China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) and the 2017 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), we examine the effect of homeownership on labor force participation (LFP). We find that, compared to rental migrants, homeowner migrants, particularly married females, are less likely to participate in the labor force. Mechanism analysis shows that commuting time to potential jobs increases after migrants live in their properties and females are more sensitive to commuting costs because of domestic responsibilities.

This paper uses a large scale and nationally representative dataset, Chinese General Social Survey, to empirically examine the role of physical activity in reducing the negative effects of depression among people with mental disorders. Empirical results demonstrate that physical exercise could help to alleviate depression's adverse consequences on work and life for depressed individuals. The impact mechanism is that physical activity may decrease the severity of depression, enhance life satisfaction, improve mood, and make people have a better sense of purpose and meaning in life. Therefore, from the perspective of multidimensional subjective wellbeing, evaluative wellbeing, experienced wellbeing and eudaimonic wellbeing all play mediating roles in the reduction of depression's adverse effects. Heterogeneity analysis shows that there are no significant gender differences in the health benefits of physical exercise, but its impact tends to be more prominent for depressed individuals who are younger and higher educated, with better health status, and live in urban areas. It is also found that socioeconomic status may play an important moderating role. The health benefits of physical activity seem to be greater for depressed people who have lower income, work in the secondary labor market, and have lower levels of social capital and assets. In addition, the instrumental variable approach is used to identify the causal impact of physical activity, which further proves a significant effect of it based on tackling the endogeneity problem. Meanwhile, this paper uses different explanatory and explained variables, different statistical models, as well as machine learning and placebo techniques to conduct robustness tests, all of which lend credence to above findings.

文章使用2014～2018年中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)数据,考察个体互联网使用对受产业转型升级冲击的第一和第二产业低技能劳动力产业间流动的影响.研究结果表明:(1)互联网使用有利于低技能劳动力跨产业流动,促进了第一、第二产业劳动力流向第三产业,也促进第二产业劳动力流向第一产业,低技能劳动者能够利用互联网更好地适应产业结构转型升级和乡村振兴战略实施的需要.(2)互联网使用对第一、第二产业中男性群体和45岁以下年轻群体流向第三产业产生显著的正向影响,女性劳动者和年长劳动者需要进一步通过数字赋能拓展产业流动机遇.(3)互联网使用主要通过信息获取、技能转换等方式显著促进低技能劳动者流向第三产业,且对第二产业劳动力的影响更大,有必要提高农业劳动力的互联网利用效率,完善配套政策以降低产业流动成本.文章认为,需要从扩大网络覆盖范围、提升培训质量、发展对接平台等方面做出努力,以增强低技能劳动者产业流动的能力,通过劳动力产业间再配置助力中国经济体系优化升级.

Based on the national baseline survey data of the CHARLS2015, the comprehensive evaluation index of depression degree of the elderly in China is calculated using a principal component analysis method. The Tobit model is used to investigate the influence of mental health status with depression degree as a proxy variable on the health consumption of the elderly in China. The results show that the overall effect and the phased effect of depression on the health consumption of the elderly are positive. In other words, high levels of depression lead to a higher probability and amount of health consumption. Research findings show that chronic illness and increased social activity can weaken the effect of depression on the health spending of the elderly. Fully considering the factors affecting the mental health of elderly people is required to improve their level of mental health. Importantly, the quality audit system of health products and the supervision and management system of the health consumption market should be improved to realize the benign operation of the health consumption market.