Ninghua Zhong

School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai · Economics and Finance

Based on a survey of 1,268 firms in 12 cities, this paper empirically studies unions’ effects on worker welfare in China. Regressions carried out on a rich set of specifications show that unionization is significantly associated with higher hourly wages and larger pension coverage and weakly associated with lower monthly working hours. Further econ...

By using a dataset containing over 1200 Chinese non-listed firms, this study examines the corporate governance of privatized firms. Based on the summary statistics for 22 governance structures, I find that privatized domestic private firms have set up stronger governance than domestic private firms that have not experienced privatization. I propose...

China's urban household saving rate has increased markedly since the mid-1990s, accompanied by a dramatic increase in home ownership. Is there a causal link between those two phenomena? This paper takes advantage of a unique natural experiment in China, which reformed the nationwide employer-based public housing system in 1998. This reform created...

The New Public Management (NPM) has achieved many successes in public service delivery, but practitioners frequently observed failures in developing and transitional economies. For instance, China’s public–private partnerships (PPP) since 2014 have failed to transfer risks to the private sector, to involve private skills and expertise, and to reduc...

This paper provides new evidence on the housing wealth effect on consumption using household panel data. A key advantage in studying the Chinese housing market is the absence of the collateral channel, as households are prohibited from withdrawing housing equity. The results show that for every 1 percent increase in housing wealth, household consum...

Using panel data that covers about 19,000 households in urban China from 2002 to 2009, this paper examines to what extent household consumption responds to changes in housing wealth. A key advantage in studying the Chinese housing market is the ability to distinguish between various mechanisms. Specifically, the collateral effect is unlikely to be...

Enterprise bonds with higher demand of retail investors are traded at significantly higher prices in the exchange market than the same bonds traded by institutional investors in the interbank market in China. The price difference is higher for bonds with higher yield to maturity, lower supply, and higher demand exposure to retail investors. Our res...

Employing a unique dataset of Chinese non-listed firms, this paper investigates the effects of the presence of 19 governance structures on 20 employees’ interest indicators. In general, we find that firms with the governance structures pay workers higher hourly wages, require less monthly working hours, and have a smaller chance of wage arrears. Me...

This paper examines the effects of corporate governance on labor welfare, using data from over twelve thousands Chinese non-listed private firms. I find evidence that strong governance structures are positively related to hourly wages, pension coverage, and many other labor welfare measures. The results suggest that managers of the sample firms are...

This paper provides a new explanation for China’s extremely low consumption-to-GDP ratio, highlighting the constraints of the “household registration system” (Hukou) on China’s household consumption. Our baseline results show that the consumption of migrants without an urban Hukou is 30.7% lower than that of urban residents. Moreover, consumption h...

Based on a survey of 1,268 firms in 12 Chinese cities, this paper empirically studies the effects of unions on three aspects of workers’ welfare, namely, hourly wages, monthly working hours, and pension coverage. Our baseline results show that unionization increases hourly wage rates by 5.6%, reduces monthly working hours by 1.4%, and raises pensio...

Privatization leads to dramatic changes in corporate governance of a firm. This article finds that, for a Chinese privatized firm, macroeconomic conditions around the year of its privatization would affect its corporate governance. Data analysis suggests the relationship is through the choice of local governments on the privatization method. Based...

Based on a survey of 1,268 firms in 12 Chinese cities, this paper empirically studies the effects of unions on three aspects of workers’ welfare, namely, hourly wages, monthly working hours, and pension coverage. Our baseline results show that unionization increases hourly wage rates by 5.6%, reduces monthly working hours by 1.4%, and raises pensio...

This article introduces and applies the data on Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) provided by the World Bank 2005 International Comparison Program. The data is used to compare China with other major countries in the aspects of real economic size, economic structure, as well as the development level. The article discusses the different usage of PPPs...

In this article, we study the impact of unions in China on three important as- pects of workers' welfare, namely, hourly wage, monthly working hour, and pension coverage. Without taking into account the endogeneity of unionization, SUR model estimates show that unions have significant effects on all three aspects. Yet, once the simultaneity between...

This paper reviews some issues related to the causes, consequences and cures of corruption. Section two highlights government intervention in the economy as the root cause. Section three discusses the consequences which include redistribution of income, social welfare loss due to reduced commodity transactions, and economic efficiency loss due to e...