China Economic Quarterly International (CEQI)
Volume 1, Number 2
June 2021

Gender roles and women’s labor market outcomes
Zhang Chuanchuan and Wang Jingwen

Cost-benefit analysis of the Hukou reform: Simulation evidence from a theoretical labor market model
Yang Song

Construction and testing of the China's labor marketization index
Wenkai Sun, Zhong Zhao, Shuang Shan and Wending Liu

Collecting system and payroll tax compliance: Evidence from Chinese firm-level data
Jue Tang and Jin Feng

Impact of air pollution on labor productivity: Evidence from prison factory data
Shuai Chen and Dandan Zhang

Do discretion criteria for patent administrative law enforcement encourage innovation among firms?
Hanxin Lin and Cheryl Xiaoning Long

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Gender roles and women’s labor market outcomes
Zhang Chuanchuan, Wang Jingwen
Pages 97-108
Abstract: Using the China General Social Survey data, we tried to examine the impact of gender roles on women’s labor market outcomes. We find that traditional gender roles emphasizing women’s responsibility for housework are negatively related to the employment rate and earnings of women. Although gender roles are persistent and transmit across generations, we find that women’s liberation movements during the planned economy period significantly reshape the concept of gender roles, where we take the intensity of local women’s liberation movements as the proxy variable by using local numbers of the National March 8th Women Pacesetters in 1960 and 1979. Using the intensity of local women’s liberation movements as instrument for gender roles, we find consistent evidences that the traditional gender roles decrease the likelihood of being employed and earnings of women.
 

Cost-benefit analysis of the Hukou reform: Simulation evidence from a theoretical labor market model
Yang Song
Pages 109-119
Abstract: We built a labor market model in China to incorporate key features of the current Chinese Hukou system (a system of household registration). Simulation analyses showed that when the Hukou system was fully reformed or abolished, more older workers would migrate to cities, leading to a rise in national GDP and a large reduction in nation-wide income inequality. Moreover, we found that the cost of the policy could be offset by the increase in national GDP. That is to say, the budget concern should not be the obstacle for the Hukou reform. In order to reduce inequality, the government should promote more fundamental Hukou reforms.
 

Construction and testing of the China's labor marketization index
Wenkai Sun, Zhong Zhao, Shuang Shan, Wending Liu
Pages 120-134
Abstract: In this paper we used two primary indicators and four secondary indicators to construct China's labor marketization index. We calculated the index at the prefecture-level cities from 2010 to 2016 and tested its correlation with macroeconomic indicators. The results show that there has been much progress in labor marketization in China over the period, and the key to this progress is the quantity factor rather than the price factor. Progress in labor marketization varies considerably across regions and at different levels of cities. The external validity test confirms that this index has a strong scientific basis.
 

Collecting system and payroll tax compliance: Evidence from Chinese firm-level data
Jue Tang, Jin Feng
Pages 135-147
Abstract: This paper quantifies the impacts of collecting system on social insurance contribution compliance, taking advantage of a reform around 2000 in China. Using firm-level data, we find that the actual contribution rate and the probability of participation were raised by 3% and 5 percentage points respectively, after changing the collection department from social security department to local tax department. Mechanism analyses show that the effect is larger in areas where the tax collection capacity is stronger and the reform had no significant effects on SOEs.
 

Impact of air pollution on labor productivity: Evidence from prison factory data
Shuai Chen, Dandan Zhang
Pages 148-159
Abstract: This study examined the causal relationship between air pollution and labor productivity, by adopting prison factory data for a perfect measure of labor productivity. To address the endogeneity of air pollution, an instrumental variable strategy was used. The results showed that a 10-unit increase in air pollution index led to a significant decrease in labor productivity by 4%. A nonlinear relationship between air pollution and labor productivity was also suggested, which implied that the extreme air pollution reduced labor productivity heavily. This study emphasized the negative externality of air pollution on labor productivity.
 

Do discretion criteria for patent administrative law enforcement encourage innovation among firms?
Hanxin Lin, Cheryl Xiaoning Long
Pages 160-175
Abstract: The management by administrative authorities of law violations represents one of the instruments for enforcing laws in China, the other way is lawsuit. The law allows administrative discretion to achieve efficiency but may lead to unfair law enforcement. Governments’ establishing patent administrative discretion criteria can deter unfair law enforcement by guiding administrators to determine administrative penalties. As such, a quasi-experimental approach testing the discretion criteria established by provincial patent administrative authorities was used in the current study to evaluate the impact of discretion criteria on law enforcement and innovation among firms. The empirical evidence shows that patent administrative discretion criteria increase the number of patent administrative law enforcement cases and encourage firms to apply for more patents, and this impact is larger for firms in industries where the new product market is broader, patent license fees are higher, patent rights easier to be infringed upon, and R&D duration is lengthier.