China Economic Quarterly International (CEQI)

Volume 1, Number 3

September 2021

Impact of tiered pricing reform on China's residential electricity use

Min Wang, Xiumei Yu

 

Decentralization and development of small cites: Evidence from county-to-city upgrading in China

Wei Tang

 

District heating versus self-heating: Estimation of energy efficiency gap using regression discontinuity design

Jing Jin, Yucheng Wang, Xinye Zheng

 

Can higher levels of disclosure bring greater efficiency: Empirical research on the effect of government information disclosure on enterprise investment efficiency

Wenchao Yu, Pinghan Liang, Nan Gao

 

Social mobility in China, 1645–2012: A surname study

Yu Hao

 

Does the Chinese version of Bayh-Dole Act promote university innovation?

Wei Yi, Cheryl Xiaoning Long

 

Administrative approval reform and the quality of economic development

Guangshun Zhu, Zhang Li, Xu Xianxiang

 

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Impact of tiered pricing reform on China's residential electricity use

Min Wang, Xiumei Yu

Pages 177-190

Abstract

Based on a county-level monthly panel data from four provinces and a province-level monthly panel data from 21 provinces from 2009 to 2015, we use the regression discontinuity method to examine the impacts of the tired pricing reform implemented in July 2012 on residential electricity use in China. The county-level (province-level) estimation shows that the tiered pricing reform has reduced the monthly electricity use per household by 6.5 ​kWh (8.9 ​kWh), accounting for 6.1% (7.1%) of the monthly electricity use per household. Moreover, counties and provinces with a more drastic policy shift have shown a larger decrease in residential electricity use.

 

 

Decentralization and development of small cites: Evidence from county-to-city upgrading in China

Wei Tang

Pages 191-207

Abstract

This paper examines how decentralization of administrative and fiscal authority affects the development of small cities by exploiting a unique reform of county-to-city upgrading (chexiansheshi) in China. Based on a comprehensive county-level dataset and difference-in-difference approach, I evaluate the overall as well as heterogenous effect of upgrading policy between 1993 and 1997 on local economic development. The policy impacts are most pronounced in eastern regions and counties with higher initial agglomeration level. While the effect on economic development is insignificant in middle and western regions, it greatly expanded local bureaucracy size in these areas. I discuss the potential channels of policy effects under a simple decentralization framework with heterogeneous regions. These findings suggest that decentralization might generate entirely different consequences, relying on the level of local development potential. For this reason, it is important for the policy makers to fully take into account regional heterogeneity in optimizing decentralization policy.

 

 

District heating versus self-heating: Estimation of energy efficiency gap using regression discontinuity design

Jing Jin, Yucheng Wang, Xinye Zheng

Pages 208-220

Abstract

This paper employs regression discontinuity design to estimate the impact of heating modes on residents’ energy consumption, energy efficiency gap, and energy usage behavior, using the Chinese Residential Energy Consumption Survey (CRECS). We find that district heating increases total energy consumption and total heating expenditure. However, energy consumption and expenditure per unit of district heating are lower than self-heating, which means a positive energy efficiency gap between district heating and self-heating. With the estimates, we construct a model of household heating expenditure. The counterfactual simulation shows that district heating expenditure would be reduced by more than 35% if the heating fee is charged based on actual usage. We suggest government provide a quantity-based district heating service by implementing a two-part tariff pricing strategy.

 

 

Can higher levels of disclosure bring greater efficiency: Empirical research on the effect of government information disclosure on enterprise investment efficiency

Wenchao Yu, Pinghan Liang, Nan Gao

Pages 221-232

Abstract

Government Information disclosure (GID) is an important part of Chinese efforts in improving doing-business environment. Based on the sample of China's listed enterprises, this paper studies the effect of government information disclosure on enterprise investment efficiency. We find that GID significantly improves enterprise investment efficiency, and this effect is stronger for non-SOE, and enterprises in regulated industries. Mechanism analysis suggests that when policy uncertainty is higher, the promotion effect of GID on enterprise investment efficiency is stronger. The analysis based on enterprises' survey data shows that the higher level of GID is associated with the lower enterprises' perception of policy uncertainty. These suggest that GID improves enterprise investment efficiency and raise the doing-business environment by reducing policy uncertainty.

 

 

Social mobility in China, 1645–2012: A surname study

Yu Hao

Pages 233-243

Abstract

This paper estimates the rate of intergenerational social mobility of status in Late Imperial, Republican and Communist China by examining the changing social status of originally elite surnames over time. It finds much lower rates of mobility in all eras than previous studies have suggested, though there is some increase in mobility in the Republican and Communist eras. But even in the Communist era social mobility rates are much lower than are conventionally estimated for China, Scandinavia, the UK or USA. These findings are consistent with the hypotheses of Campbell and Lee (2011) of the importance of kin networks in the intergenerational transmission of status. But we argue it more likely reflects mainly a systematic tendency of conventional mobility studies to overestimate rates of social mobility of status, where status is partially measured by income, wealth and education at individual or household level.

 

 

Does the Chinese version of Bayh-Dole Act promote university innovation?

Wei Yi, Cheryl Xiaoning Long

Pages 244-257

Abstract

The Chinese version of Bayh-Dole Act (BD for short) refers to the ownership reform policy for patents arising from government funding research grants. We collected the policies of 31 “985 project” universities from 1998 to 2015 to explore the impact of the Chinese BD. Empirical evidence suggested that patent applications, patent approvals, patent durations, patent citations, and profits from technology transfer of the universities adopting the BD policy had increased significantly. The BD policy encouraged more researchers to disclose and commercialize their inventions and to pursue global patent filing strategies. Compared with the BD policy, the incentive effect of subsidies, tenure promotion and cash bonuses were relatively limited.

 

 

Administrative approval reform and the quality of economic development

Guangshun Zhu, Zhang Li, Xu Xianxiang

Pages 258-270

Abstract

Can administrative approval reform become an effective reform to improve the quality of economic development? Total factor productivity is the key measure of the quality of economic development. In this paper, we studied the influence of administrative approval reform on total factor productivity of enterprises theoretically and empirically. We found that administrative approval reform has promoted the improvement of the total factor productivity of enterprises overall. The reduction of institutional transaction costs and the increase in the threat of enterprise entry are important mechanisms for administrative approval reform to affect enterprise productivity. In addition, the decomposition results of the overall productivity growth of cities show that administrative approval reform mainly promotes the growth of total factor productivity of incumbent enterprises.