International Studies of Economics最新文献

{"title":"Health insurance coverage and marriage behavior: Is there evidence of marriage lock?","authors":"Tianxu Chen","doi":"10.1002/ise3.45","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ise3.45","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Premiums and eligibility for health insurance may cause a “marriage lock,” in which couples stay married for the sake of maintaining health insurance coverage. By using the Health and Retirement Study for adults aged 60–70, I examine whether employer-based health insurance coverage for the spouse discourages divorce for spousal health insurance coverage-dependent individuals. Diverse difference-in-difference models provide evidence of a 7 percentage points increase in the number of divorces upon achieving Medicare eligibility at age 65 for people with spousal insurance coverage relative to those without it. The estimates thus provide evidence that marriage lock exists.</p>","PeriodicalId":29662,"journal":{"name":"International Studies of Economics","volume":"18 2","pages":"136-158"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ise3.45","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50145402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Centering on economic construction to stabilize general socioeconomic conditions while fully promoting economic recovery: Outlook, policy simulations, and reform implementation—A summary of the annual SUFE macroeconomic report (2022–2023)","authors":"Kevin X. D. Huang,&nbsp;Guoqiang Tian,&nbsp;Xiaowen Wang","doi":"10.1002/ise3.47","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ise3.47","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Chinese economy upheld a frail recovery in 2022 under the triple superposition of contraction of demand, disruption in supply, and weakening expectations, aggravated by unanticipated adverse shocks in the midst of global turmoil. Over the year, rising income uncertainty set off by the pandemic shock continued depressing household consumption and housing demand. Trade also saw slowing growth, along with consumption and investment, with sluggish residential investment awaiting policy stimulus to take force. Unemployment rate remained high, and was much higher for youth engendered by severe structural imbalances in the labor market. Local government debt burden worsened while revenue shrinking, only to exacerbate the local fiscal financial risk. It fared better on the price side. While growth in producer price index kept falling, consumer price index maintained steady growth. Renminbi depreciated against USD through fluctuations with larger swings, but the exchange rate remained in a manageable band. The Institute for Advanced Research-China Macroeconomic Model projects the baseline growth rate in real gross domestic product to be 5.4% in 2023. We have also used the model to conduct alternative scenario analyses and policy simulations to assess the impacts of potential downside risks or favorable situations. Our findings call for a focus on economic construction with deepening reform and opening up more comprehensively and initiatively. Only by doing so can China spur market vitality, strengthen business confidence, and forge competitive advantages.</p>","PeriodicalId":29662,"journal":{"name":"International Studies of Economics","volume":"18 1","pages":"2-20"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ise3.47","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50153020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"It pays to have guanxi: How social capital affects household income in China","authors":"Kai Wu,&nbsp;Yi Liu,&nbsp;Yifan Xu,&nbsp;He Sun","doi":"10.1002/ise3.43","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ise3.43","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The association between social capital and household income has received inadequate attention over the past decade. We examine the role of social capital in household income using three waves of household surveys from 2011 to 2015 in China. Using “local big surname or not” as the instrumental variable, we find that gift expenditure as a proxy for social capital is positively associated with total household income. In addition, social capital mainly affects income sources through improved financial sophistication, higher job position levels, closer government connections, and greater accessibility to operating loans. The results are robust to alternative social capital measures. The findings highlight the importance of social capital in household economic welfare in China.</p>","PeriodicalId":29662,"journal":{"name":"International Studies of Economics","volume":"18 3","pages":"370-392"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ise3.43","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50145471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Supply chains and risk premia in Chinese stock market: A sorted-portfolio approach","authors":"Chao Yang,&nbsp;Yajun Zhao","doi":"10.1002/ise3.44","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ise3.44","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the recent literature, increasing attention has been paid to cases when the shocks to a small number of firms would lead to large volatility in many sectors. Theorists find that supply chains play a role, as the shocks to a firm or a sector may propagate through the input–output linkages and form risks in the whole network. In this paper, we investigate the impact of risks from supply-chain variations on risk premia of the A-listed firms in the Chinese stock market from 2007 to 2021. Based on network statistics, we measure a firm's local status in the supply chains by the customer- and supplier-concentration, and its global position by the centrality. We then construct corresponding risk factors using diversified portfolios sorted according to these indices. It is found that the supply-chain positions are related to risk exposure. Firms with de-concentrated customers/suppliers have larger risk premia than concentrated firms. Moreover, with Size controlled, the firms in the center of cross-sector trade have higher risk premia than the peripheral ones. When these supply-chain factors are added to Fama and French's five-factor model with Market, Size, B/M ratio, Operating profitability, and Investment, the proportion of return variances that could be explained would increase from 51.1% to 54.9% on average.</p>","PeriodicalId":29662,"journal":{"name":"International Studies of Economics","volume":"18 3","pages":"277-305"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ise3.44","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50152350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Introduction to the Special Issue on the Economics of the Belt and Road Initiative","authors":"Ding Lu","doi":"10.1002/ise3.40","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ise3.40","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been China's flagship foreign policy since 2013. Perceived as an emblem of China's rising soft power, the BRI has aroused widespread research interest among academics of various disciplines. To facilitate economic studies of the BRI, the Editorial Board of this journal made a Call for Papers a year ago for a symposium on the economics of the BRI. The manuscripts finally published in this Special Issue were selected by an expedited review process from dozens of the works submitted.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to the Chinese government's official manifesto of the BRI, the initiative “is designed to uphold the global free trade regime and the open world economy in the spirit of open regional cooperation” (National Development and Reform Commission, &lt;span&gt;2015&lt;/span&gt;). The tenet is seeking mutual benefit and a conjunction of interests for cooperating partners. The Initiative is claimed to be “a global public good,” built in line with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter; open for cooperation to all countries, and international/regional organizations; harmonious and inclusive for different civilizations and nations; and abiding by market rules and international norms. It covers vast areas along Eurasian trade routes between the East Asia economic circle at one end and the European economic circle at the other.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since its inception, the BRI has become an integral part of China's national plan for economic and social development. The 13th Five-year Plan (2016–2020) includes in it a chapter on the BRI, which specifies policies about cooperation mechanisms, economic corridors, and open and inclusive cultural exchanges (State Council, &lt;span&gt;2016&lt;/span&gt;). The 14th Five-year Plan (2021–2025) also has a chapter on the BRI, which describes policies to strengthen the linkage of development strategies and policies, promote interconnectivity and interoperability of infrastructure, deepen pragmatic economic, trade, and investment cooperation, and build a bridge for mutual learning among civilizations (State Council, &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Garlick (&lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;) also concedes in his book, &lt;i&gt;The Impact of China's Belt and Road Initiative&lt;/i&gt;, that “the BRI, despite its material real-world impacts such as investments and infrastructure projects, is wide open to a range of possible understandings. In fact, in a very important sense, the BRI is not one thing but is a matter of perception” (Garlick, &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;, p. 14).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It is nevertheless evident that the BRI is first and foremost an initiative for international economic cooperation launched and led by China. For us economists, the most relevant research topics are, mainly, what the economic purposes of this Initiative are, how the BRI works, and what effects it has on international trade and investment.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The leading article in this Special Issue, “Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for the BRI Success” (Chen and Guo), presents a framework for unders","PeriodicalId":29662,"journal":{"name":"International Studies of Economics","volume":"17 4","pages":"412-416"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ise3.40","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75786368","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Group lying with negative externality","authors":"Lan Yao,&nbsp;Chong Zhou","doi":"10.1002/ise3.37","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ise3.37","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We use a modified die-rolling experiment to study whether negative externality affects a group's decisions about whether to cheat. Our results show that group members are less likely to lie when faced with a passive out-group player only if two members of the group share an unequal payment for lying. The less-paid party in the group plays a dominant role in the honest decision by proposing the true number more frequently in arguments for group coordination.</p>","PeriodicalId":29662,"journal":{"name":"International Studies of Economics","volume":"18 2","pages":"184-192"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ise3.37","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50124448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Production network: Application in China","authors":"Dianfan Yu,&nbsp;Rui Long,&nbsp;Chao Wang","doi":"10.1002/ise3.35","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ise3.35","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Based on the input–output table and the supplier–customer data disclosed by the listed companies in China, this paper builds China's production network on both industry level and firm level. We describe the characteristics of such network using various network indexes and obtain the following results: first, China's production network on industry level is featured by “small world” and “sparsity,” and continues to become sparser. The existence of hub-like sectors makes the influence of sectoral shocks on macro fluctuations increasingly important. Second, China's production network on firm level has three types of structures: horizontal, ring, and star. Automobile and pharmaceutical industries show obvious intra-industry network cluster features. This paper aims to deepen the understanding of production network on both macro and micro levels, and provide a basis for future study on the propagation of external shocks in production networks.</p>","PeriodicalId":29662,"journal":{"name":"International Studies of Economics","volume":"18 2","pages":"159-183"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ise3.35","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50129394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Necessary and sufficient conditions for the BRI success","authors":"Yongjun Chen,&nbsp;Chenglong Guo","doi":"10.1002/ise3.38","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ise3.38","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper presents a general theoretical framework for understanding the Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI). We begin with an introduction to the connotations of the BRI and a review of the initiative's main achievements since its inception. From these achievements, we identify the existence of a potential match between supply and demand in jointly building the BRI to be the foremost necessary condition for win–win cooperation for participating countries. Several features of China's contemporary economic structure are shown to provide the huge potential of supply that matches the massive demand of many Belt-and-Road countries for infrastructure development. To unleash the full potential of the BRI, a series of sufficient conditions must be met so that supply and demand interact in a virtuous manner. In the first stage of jointly building the BRI, the key to turn the initiative's potential into reality is to develop the “Five Links” of policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and people-to-people bond. Now that the BRI has entered the high-quality development stage, we demonstrate that China has taken or needs to work on policy measures in 10 areas to ensure the continuing and sustainable success of the BRI construction.</p>","PeriodicalId":29662,"journal":{"name":"International Studies of Economics","volume":"17 4","pages":"417-429"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ise3.38","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84915937","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Why do we resolutely prevent minors from indulging in online games","authors":"Moye Li,&nbsp;Mingxiong Zhu","doi":"10.1002/ise3.39","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ise3.39","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Chinese central government recently published a new regulation to strictly limit the time minors spend on online games, providing a favorable policy environment for the protection of their physical and mental health as well as their overall development. We first provide empirical evidence that children having more frequent online entertainment would suffer worse school performance. We then adopt analytic hierarchy process to analyze the possible hazards of minors' addiction to online games from such aspects as physical health, academic performance, family relationship, and teacher–student relationship. Recommendations are finally given on how to prevent minors from being addicted to online games.</p>","PeriodicalId":29662,"journal":{"name":"International Studies of Economics","volume":"18 1","pages":"120-134"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ise3.39","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50149473","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Investigating whether connecting people can promote subnational economic development: Evidence from China–ASEAN friendship cities","authors":"Fangying Pang,&nbsp;Jingjing Tang,&nbsp;Hanwen Xie","doi":"10.1002/ise3.24","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ise3.24","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Whether maintaining a close relationship with China can benefit economic performance in the postpandemic era is a crucial concern for countries around the world. This study employs the difference-in-difference (DID) model and propensity score matching to estimate the impact of connecting people proposed by the Belt and Road Initiate (BRI) on the subnational economic development of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) cities. The quasi-natural experiment of DID is based on the establishment of China–ASEAN friendship cities. We capture the ASEAN subnational economic development by calibrated satellite nighttime light data. Our findings show that the establishment of a friendship-city relationship has a positive impact on the subnational economic development of China–ASEAN cities. Further analysis indicates that bilateral trade, China's direct investment in contracted projects, and mutual visits by national leaders may be the underlying channels for boosting the economic development of China–ASEAN friendship cities. This study contributes to the literature on friendship city and provides ex-ante implications on the BRI from the perspective of connecting people with first-hand empirical evidence.</p>","PeriodicalId":29662,"journal":{"name":"International Studies of Economics","volume":"17 4","pages":"499-530"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ise3.24","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72421583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}