Publications
- "China’s Gains from WTO Accession: Imports vs Exports," Review of International Economics, 2016, 24 (4), (Joint with Raymond Riezman and Ping Wang).
- "Trade barrier and misallocations: The case of the photovoltaic manufacturing industry in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, 2017, 52, (Joint with Yen-Po Chen, Wen-Chieh Lee and Hao-Chung Li).
- "Business Cycle Fluctuations with the Division of Permanent and Temporary Employment," Economic Inquiry, 2019, 57 (4), (Joint with Kuan-Jen Chen and Ching-Chong Lai).
- "Fiscal Stimulus in a Simple Macroeconomic Model of Monopolistic Competition with Firm Heterogeneity," Japanese Economic Review, 2020, 71, (Joint with Cheng-wei Chang and Ching-Chong Lai).
- "Macroeconomic Instability and Targeting Rules for Monetary Policy in an Endogenously Growing Small Open Economy," Review of International Economics, 2021, 29 (4), (Joint with Kuan-Jen Chen and Ching-Chong Lai).
- "Optimal Tariffs in a Two-country R&D-based Growth Model," Macroeconomic Dynamics, forthcoming, (Joint with Hamid Beladi, Ping-ho Chen, Hsun Chu and Ching-chong Lai).
Working Papers
- Employment Protection, Temporary and Permanent Employment Share, and Procyclicality of Labor Productivity. (Joint with Kuan-Jen Chen and Ching-Chong Lai). submitted
Using data from 36 OECD countries, we find that the extent of the procyclicality of average labor productivity (ALP) differs significantly across countries, and is positively correlated with the strictness of employment protection. To account for this salient feature, we build up a theoretical model in which aggregate employment is divided into temporary and permanent categories; the two groups of employment are highly substitutable in production and the latter is subject to firing costs. Our numerical results suggest that in our model the intensity of labor firing costs, which characterizes the strictness of employment protection in OECD countries, has positive effects on both the procyclicality of ALP and the share of temporary employment. Moreover, considering the possibility of hiring different types of workers as short-term substitutes contributes to a reduction in the relative volatility between output and aggregate hours worked, and hence a sharp decline in the procyclicality of ALP. The model can also explain why, with a higher intensity of labor firing costs, a firm has more incentives to hoard less-productive redundant workers when the economy experiences a negative total factor productivity shock.
- Growth in a Patrilocal Economy: Female Schooling, Household Savings, and the One-Child Policy. (Joint with Wei-Cheng Chen), Under revision.
We develop a model of the parental education decision to analyze how a population control policy affects households' decisions on saving and schooling in a patrilocal society in which sons are responsible for supporting aged parents more than daughters. Parents' investment in education depends not only on the degree of parental altruism but also on the need for old-age support in the form of children’s financial transfers. A tightened population control policy increases the importance of parental altruism and reduces the costs of raising children, thereby causing a rise in the investment in daughters' education more than in sons'. Our model explains the fact that under a series of population control policies China has been experiencing rapid growth in female educational attainment. Meanwhile, our model also predicts that the household saving rate rises during the transition periods but it will eventually decline because of excessive dissaving with an ageing population.
Working on Progress
- Skills, Productivity Changes, and Dynamic Gains from Trade (joint with Shin-Kun Peng, Raymond Riezman and Ping Wang).
- Directed Technical Change, Technology Spillovers, and Asset Pricing (Joint with Kuan-Jen Chen and Ching-Chong Lai). Draft is upon request.