Li Yang
Contact
Information
1818 H Street, NW
MSN MC3-307
Washington, DC, 20433
USA
Research
Interests
Primary field:
• Economic Development
Phone: +1 202 458 4872
Mobile: +1 703 473 7308
FAX: +1 202 522 1155
Email: [email protected]
Secondary field:
• Economic History
Employment
World Bank, DEC Research Group
Consultant
September 2013-
Joint research with L. Colin Xu
Visiting
Positions
Paris School of Economics
Invited Researcher
March 2016-
Joint research with Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman
Education
Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
Ph.D., Economics, June 2013
• Thesis Topic: Research on Historical Foreign Direct Investment in China
• Advisors: Long, Cheryl Xiaoning ; Hong, Yongmiao
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA
Joint Doctoral Program, Economics, 2007-2009
• Advisor: Bera, Anil K.
Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
M.A., Finance, June 2006
B.A., Finance and Banking, June 2003
Publications
1. “Technology spillovers from Chinese outward direct investment: The case of Ethiopia”
(with Mebratu Seyoum and Renshui Wu), China Economic Review, April 2015,
Vol. 33 (1):35–49.
Working Papers
1. “The Long-Term Impact of a Large Civil War: The Case of Taiping Rebellion”
(with L. Colin Xu, Funded by the World Bank)
2. ”Memories of Colonial Law: The Inheritance of Human Capital and the Location
of Joint Ventures in Early-Reform China” (with Cheryl Xiaoning Long and Peter
Murrell ) SSRN :http://ssrn.com/abstract=2740059
3. ”FDI Spillover Effects in Republican Era China” (with Cheryl Long, presented in
The Chinese Economist Society 2013 Annual Conference )
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Work in
Progress
Professional
Activities
Presentations
1. “Capital Accumulation in China, 19XX-2014” (with Thomas Piketty and Gabriel
Zucman)
Referee for the Economic Issues of China
• The 1st Annual Xiamen University International Workshop on Economic Analysis
of Institutions, Xiamen, China
June 2014
• The Chinese Economist Society Annual Conference, Chengdu, China
June 2013
Awards
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
• Scholarship of Workshop on Quantitative History at Tsinghua University
2014
Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
• Scholarship of Joint Doctoral Program, China Scholarship Council
2007-2009
Other
Activities
Shangri-La, Yunnan, China
• Volunteering Chinese Teacher in Napa Tibetan Village
Computer
Programming
• Stata, QGIS, SAGA-GIS, LATEX
Languages
• English (proficient), Chinese (native), Spanish (Beginner)
References
Research Papers
L. Colin Xu
Lead Economist
Development Research Group
The World Bank
2009-2010
Phone:+1 202 473 4664
E-mail: [email protected]
Cherly Long
Professor of Economics
WISE
Xiamen University
Phone: +86 0592 2182075
E-mail: [email protected]
Petter Murrell
Professor of Economics
Department of Economics
University of Maryland
Phone: +1 301 405 3476
E-mail: [email protected]
Yongmiao Hong
Professor of Economics
Department of Economics
Cornell University
Phone: +1 607 255 5130
E-mail: [email protected]
“Technology spillovers from Chinese outward direct investment: The
case of Ethiopia” (with Mebratu Seyoum and Renshui Wu), China Economic
Review, April 2015, Vol. 33 (1):35–49.
The present study uses firm survey data of 1033 manufacturing firms operating
in Ethiopia in 2011 to examine the impact of Chinese outbound direct investment on the productivity of domestic firms. Particularly, we attempt to answer
two questions. Firstly, are Chinese-owned (henceforth foreign) firms more productive than local ones? Secondly, does the presence of foreign firms generate
technology spillovers on domestic firms operating in the same industry? Our
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empirical results show that foreign firms are more productive and that their
presence has different spillover effects on the productivity of domestic firms.
In particular, we find that domestic firms with higher absorptive capacity experience positive spillovers, while those with low absorptive capacity witness
negative spillover. We also find that small firms and non-exporting firms benefit more from spillovers than do other types of domestic firms. In this study,
instrumental variables are used to address the potential endogeneity between
foreign firm presence and domestic firm productivity.
“The Long-Term Impact of a Large Civil War: The Case of Taiping
Rebellion” (with L. Colin Xu, Funded by the World Bank)
We study the long-term impacts on population growth of the Taiping Rebellion
(1851-1864), likely the deadliest civil war in human history. By constructing
and analyzing a dataset of 266 prefectures from 1776 to 2000, we document
that, compared to the control group the Rebellion cause a permanent population loss in the prefectures under the control of the Taiping Regime, and the
gap in the population growth (compared to the baseline year 1776) between the
two group had remained largely the same even 120 years after the Rebellion.
The qualitative results hold after we instrument Taiping Regime with a plausible instrument based on the wartime strategy of the Taiping Regime. We offer
evidence that two important channels for the effect of the Rebellion are land
property rights and internal tariff (known as Likin) for cross-regional transactions. We also conduct a placebo test to show that another great Famine
of large scope, the ENSO famine (1876-1880), did not result in permanent
population effect perhaps because it did not affect land property rights.
”Memories of Colonial Law: The Inheritance of Human Capital and the
Location of Joint Ventures in Early-Reform China” (with Cheryl Xiaoning
Long and Peter Murrell )
Using a unique data set of Chinese FDI contracts from the 1980s and 1990s, we
explore mechanisms of historical persistence in the context of China’s unique
colonial experience. Using difference-in-difference estimations, we show that
there was a tendency for foreign investors to form joint ventures in Chinese
cities where their home country had a colonial presence in the 19th century.
Using a difference-in-difference-in-difference approach we provide empirical evidence in support of the human-capital channel for explaining the historically
persistent impact of colonial experience. Specifically, the most parsimonious
explanation for our results is that legal human capital inherited from colonial
times affected economic decisions in the reform era. Alternative explanations
for long-term persistence are not supported. The study thus contributes to the
research on history’s long-lasting influence by highlighting the importance of
one particular mechanism of persistence — historical memory of institutions,
or simply legal human capital.
“FDI Spillover Effects in Republican Era China” ” (with Cheryl Long,
presented in The Chinese Economist Society 2013 Annual Conference )
Using historical data from Republican Era China, we study the spillover effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on Chinese indigenous firms in the
1930s. We find that the presence of FDI significantly lowers the total factor
productivity (TFP) of domestic firms through two mechanisms, competition
on the product market that reduced these firms’ market share and competition on the labor market that increased their operation costs. Furthermore, we
provide empirical evidence for the importance of institutional factors in determining the spillover effects of FDI in Republican Era China. The existence of
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likin, the sales tax levied only on domestic products, is shown to exacerbate the
negative impact of FDI on domestic firms. If there had been no likin, our estimates suggest that the negative FDI spillover effects would have disappeared.
The other contributor to FDI’s harmful impact on Chinese domestic firms is
the low level of human capital. Our results show that domestic firms tend to
suffer less negative impact at the presence of FDI if they are located in regions
with a larger number of students educated in Western style schools. These
findings survive numerous robustness tests. For JEH We study the spillover
effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on Chinese indigenous firms in the
1930s. We find that the presence of FDI significantly lowers the total factor
productivity (TFP) of domestic firms through two mechanisms, competition
on the product market and competition on the labor market. Furthermore,
we provide empirical evidence for the importance of institutional factors in determining the spillover effects of FDI in Republican Era China. The existence
of internal tariff, the sales tax levied only on domestic products, is shown to
exacerbate the negative impact of FDI on domestic firms.
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