Stanford University

Young Researcher Workshop

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Early-life Experience of Social Violence and CEOs’ Risk-taking Attitudes


Speaker: Cindy Shen, Predoctoral Research Fellow, Stanford Graduate School of Business

We show that early-life experience of social violence exerts a lasting influence on CEO’s risk-taking attitudes, in the context of their corporate acquisition decisions. Utilizing the Cultural Revolution as a rare social experiment, we document that, CEOs experienced higher level social violence in early-life are less likely to engage in acquisition and the impact is larger for riskier type of acquisition. Further analyses show that the early-life social violence experience takes effect by affecting people’s mental health. Given that our treatment is distinct from the events in prior studies (e.g., natural disaster or economic degression), this study enriches our understanding on the origin of managerial risk-taking incentives.

About the Workshops


The SCCEI Young Researcher Workshops are a bi-weekly series of presentations from scholars around campus who are working on issues related to China’s economy and institutions. The aim of the series is to bring together young scholars by providing a platform to present new research, get feedback, exchange ideas, and make connections. Each session features a single presenter who may present a new research plan, share results from preliminary data analyses, or do a trial run of a job talk or conference presentation. The Workshop Series is an opportunity to give and receive feedback on existing research, get to know other researchers around campus who are working on or in China, and be a testing ground for new ideas, data, and presentations.

Workshops are held every other Thursday from 1 - 2 pm. Afternoon refreshments will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

Learn More About the Workshops

Goldman Room, Encina Hall, E409

Cindy Shen, Predoctoral Research Fellow
Workshops

Scott Rozelle Joins Track Two Diplomacy Efforts on Scholarly Exchange between the United States and China

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Heather Rahimi
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In early 2023 Professor Scott Rozelle, SCCEI Co-Director, was asked to participate in a Track Two diplomacy effort between the US and China focusing on the current state of scholarly exchange between the two countries.

There are many ways to build and maintain relationships between nations, the most official way being through track 1 diplomacy, when communication is directly between governments. However, geopolitical climates can make track 1 diplomacy challenging to achieve or even fruitless, if executed, which brings us to Track Two diplomacy. Track Two diplomacy is when people from one country meet with people from another country, in this case scholars from both the US and China, to talk about a specific issue affecting both nations: “Scholarly Exchange between the US and China.” The delegations typically have the blessing of the governments, and often have the ears of government officials after the meetings, but are not made up of government officials or direct government representatives. This encourages more open conversation and genuine camaraderie between the two delegations.

When we got together with our academic colleagues from China, we immediately bonded and opened up with a sense of camaraderie, we almost immediately knew we were facing the same challenges on both sides of the Pacific.
Scott Rozelle

In July 2023, Professor Rozelle joined a group of ten academics from the US, including both professors and think tank professionals, and traveled to China where they met with 12 scholars from China. The group spent three days at Peking University in discussion and went on several site visits around Beijing (to the Foreign Ministry; Xinhua New Agency; American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing; the US Embassy) where they furthered dialogue on the current state of scholarly exchange and how to improve it.

There were several key takeaways from the meetings:

Scholarly exchange is still occurring but at a much lower level compared with 5 to 10 years ago. 
Scholarly exchange is suffering collateral damage from the deteriorating US-China relations.

Challenges to scholarly exchange exist within both countries.
Rozelle remarked, “when we [the 10 academics from the US] got together with our academic colleagues from China, we immediately bonded and opened up with a sense of camaraderie, we almost immediately knew we were facing the same challenges on both sides of the Pacific.”

Through discussion, Rozelle documented 15 different issues that are inhibiting research efforts within China, (such as increased privacy laws, shutting off access to public databases, putting strict limits on access to archives, and more,) and 10 things in the US hindering research (such as, not issuing visas to engineering/biomedicine/science Ph.D students and post-docs from China). 

The biggest issue both sides face is the perception that scholarly exchange may compromise national security.
A small fraction of scholarly exchange is related to national security issues, the other share of scholarly exchange is much more related to positive outcomes in research, technology, and national growth. A secular decline of scholarly exchange is going to have large negative impacts on growth, equity and happiness in both countries as well as around the world.

Leaders in both countries need to define what types of scholarly exchange concern national security.
What can be done to improve scholarly exchange? Both countries have stated that scholarly exchange is related to national security, which is what has led to the decline (and prohibition, in some cases,) of scholarly exchange.

The challenge is that there has been no definition or clarification given of what types of scholarly exchange are sensitive to this matter. As a result, lower-level bureaucrats both in the United States and in China have taken risk-averse approaches in implementing these efforts by making it difficult to do almost all research. The two groups of scholars almost unanimously agreed that what is urgently needed is for upper-level leaders in the two countries to officially define what specific topic areas are national security concerns, and which are not.

What is urgently needed is for upper-level leaders in the two countries to officially define what specific topic areas are national security concerns, and which are not.

In early October 2023 the delegation from China will join the US delegation in Washington DC to continue the conversation and strategize on how to foster more scholarly exchange between the two nations.

Rozelle is currently working on producing a brief that will seek to demonstrate both the benefits of US-China scholarly exchange as well as the cost of the disruption. Once published, the brief will be part of the overall effort as well as being linked here.
 

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The Economist Features Research from Scott Rozelle

"China's Defeated Youth" published in The Economist featured Scott Rozelle's research on wage growth of blue-collar workers in China.
The Economist Features Research from Scott Rozelle
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2023 China Business Conference: Washington’s View of China

SCCEI’s Impact Team attended the 13th Annual China Business Conference held in Washington, D.C. in May 2023. The team shares insights from the conference on issues raised surrounding the troubled U.S.-China relationship.
2023 China Business Conference: Washington’s View of China
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News

Experts Convene Roundtable to Discuss China’s Property Sector Slowdown

The Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions and Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis co-organized a closed-door roundtable on the extent, causes, and implications of China’s current property sector slowdown and produced a summary report of the discussion.
Experts Convene Roundtable to Discuss China’s Property Sector Slowdown
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SCCEI Co-Director Scott Rozelle joined a select group of ten academics from the U.S. to participate in a Track Two diplomacy effort between the U.S. and China. Together, they traveled to Beijing where they met with 12 scholars from China to discuss the current state of scholarly exchange between the two countries, as well as strategies to improve it.

Dietary Diversity and Its Contribution to the Magnitude of Anaemia among Pregnant Women: Evidence from Rural Areas of Western China

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Background: Prenatal anaemia causes serious consequences for both mother and foetus, and dietary factors are suggested to be associated with anaemia. However, research in pregnant women living in rural areas is limited. We aim to assess the contribution of dietary diversity to the magnitude of prenatal anaemia in rural China and identify the interactions between dietary diversity and several sociodemographic and maternal characteristics in relation to anaemia. Methods: A multi-stage random cluster sampling method was used to select pregnant women in rural western China. The Woman’s Dietary Diversity Score was created to measure dietary diversity, which was recoded into terciles. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to assess the associations between dietary diversity score terciles and the magnitude of prenatal anaemia. Multiplicative interactions were tested by adding the product term of dietary diversity and several sociodemographic and maternal characteristics into the regression models. Results: Out of 969 participants, 54.3% were measured as anaemic, with 28.6% mildly anaemic and 25.7% moderately to severely anaemic. There was an absence of agreement between self-reported and measured anaemia status (κ = 0.28, 95% CI [0.22–0.34]). Participants in the highest dietary diversity score tercile had lower odds of being moderately to severely anaemic after adjusting for potential confounders (RRR = 0.65, 95% CI [0.44, 0.98]). In participants with moderate to severe anaemia, significant interactions were found between dietary diversity score terciles, age, and parity (p for interaction < 0.05). Conclusions: The prevalence of prenatal anaemia in rural China remains high, and pregnant women living in these areas are insufficiently aware of their anaemia status. Improving dietary diversity is needed to manage prenatal anaemia in rural areas.

Journal Publisher
Nutrients
Authors
Scott Rozelle

Maternal Dietary Diversity and Small for Gestational Age: The Effect Modification by Pre-Pregnancy Body Mass Index and Gestational Weight Gain in a Prospective Study within Rural Sichuan, China (2021–2022)

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Infants born small for gestational age (SGA) remains a significant global public health concern, with potential interconnections among maternal diet, pre-pregnancy BMI, gestational weight gain (GWG), and SGA. This prospective study investigated the association between dietary diversity (DD) during pregnancy and the risk of SGA, as well as the synergistic effect of DD with pre-pregnancy BMI and GWG on SGA. Maternal dietary intake during pregnancy was assessed using 24 h dietary recalls, and dietary diversity scores (DDS) were calculated based on the FAO’s Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women index. Infant information was followed up. The Poisson regression model was employed to determine the association between maternal DD and SGA. Interactions between DD and pre-pregnancy BMI or GWG were evaluated under additive and multiplicative models. Among the 560 singleton live births, 62 (11.07%) were classified as SGA. After adjusting for potential confounders, the DDS exhibited a protective effect against SGA (aRR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.62–0.95). DD modified the association between being underweight prior to pregnancy and SGA on the additive scale (interaction contrast ratio = 7.39; 95% CI: 5.84, 8.94). These findings suggest that improving dietary diversity during pregnancy, particularly among women with a low pre-pregnancy BMI, may be a feasible strategy to reduce the risk of SGA newborns.

Journal Publisher
Nutrients
Authors
Scott Rozelle

Lessons of History: The Rise and Fall of Technology in Chinese History

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2023 Dr. Sam-Chung Hsieh Memorial Lecture
Date & Time: Thursday, September 28, 2023     |    4:30 - 6:30 PM PT 
Location: Green Library, Bing Wing, 5th floor, Bender Room


Lessons of History: The Rise and Fall of Technology in Chinese History 

Stanford Libraries and the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions are pleased to present the 2023 Dr. Sam-Chung Hsieh Memorial Lecture featuring Professor Yasheng Huang who will be speaking on Lessons of History: The Rise and Fall of Technology in Chinese History.


China was once the most technologically advanced civilization in the world. Ancient Chinese achievements in technology are simply staggering. China led Europe in metallurgy, ship construction, navigation techniques, and many other fields, often by several centuries. The Chinese also invented gunpowder, paper, the water clock, the moveable printing press, and other consequential technologies way ahead of the West. For example, the Chinese invented the seismograph 1,700 years before the French.

But China’s technological development stalled, stagnated, and eventually collapsed and its early technological leadership did not set the country on a modernization path. This lecture examines the factors behind the rise and the fall of Chinese historical technology and draws lessons for today’s China.
 

Watch the Recorded Lecture

About the Speaker 
 

Yasheng Huang headshot.

Professor Yasheng Huang is the International Program Professor in Chinese Economy and Business and a professor of global economics and management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Huang founded and runs China Lab and India Lab, which aim to help entrepreneurs in these countries improve their management skills. He is an expert source on international business, political economy, and international management. In collaboration with other scholars, Dr. Huang is conducting research on human capital formation in China and India, entrepreneurship, and ethnic and labor-intensive foreign direct investment (FDI). Prior to MIT Sloan, he held faculty positions at the University of Michigan and at Harvard Business School. Huang also served as a consultant to the World Bank.


The family of Dr. Sam-Chung Hsieh donated his personal archive to the Stanford Libraries' Special Collections and endowed the Dr. Sam-Chung Hsieh Memorial Lecture series to honor his legacy and to inspire future generations. Dr. Sam-Chung Hsieh (1919-2004) was former Governor of the Central Bank in Taiwan. During his tenure, he was responsible for the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, and was widely recognized for achieving stability and economic growth. In his long and distinguished career as economist and development specialist, he held key positions in multilateral institutions including the Asian Development Bank, where as founding Director, he was instrumental in advancing the green revolution and in the transformation of rural Asia. Read more about Dr. Hsieh.


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Green Library, Bing Wing, 5th floor, Bender Room

Yasheng Huang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lectures

Strategies of Chinese State Media on Twitter

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How do state-controlled broadcasters reach foreign publics to engage in public diplomacy in the era of social media? Previous research suggests that features unique to social media, such as the ability to engage in two-way communication with audiences, provide state-controlled broadcasters new opportunities for online public diplomacy. In this paper, we examine what strategies were used by four Chinese state-controlled media outlets on Twitter to reach foreign publics as the Chinese Communist Party worked to expand its public diplomacy and international media outreach efforts. We find that all outlets increased the volume and diversity of content while none engaged in interactive, two-way communication with audiences, and none appeared to artificially inflate their follower count. One outlet, China Global Television Network, made outsized gains in followership, and it differs from the other Chinese outlets in that it was rebranded, it disseminated a relatively lower share of government-mandated narratives pertaining to China, and the tone of its reporting was more negative. These results show that during a period when Chinese state-controlled broadcasters gained followers on Twitter, outlets made limited use of features unique to social media and instead primarily used social media as a broadcast channel.

Journal Publisher
Political Communication
Authors
Jennifer Pan

Experts Convene Roundtable to Discuss China’s Property Sector Slowdown

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 ROUNDTABLE SYNOPSIS     FULL REPORT 

 

The Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions and Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis co-organized a closed-door roundtable on the extent, causes, and implications of China’s current property sector slowdown. The roundtable focused on China’s property sector, which has been a major engine of economic growth in China for over three decades. Through its large impact on local government revenues, the financial sector, household wealth, and employment, the property sector plays an outsized role in China’s economy – far more than in most other countries. 

By 2021, however, there were signs that China’s property sector may be reaching a peak, and even beginning to contract, potentially signifying wider distress in the economy. The property sector exemplifies an investment-driven growth model that China has pursued for the past few decades, and the policy responses to the current property downturn also has implications for how and whether China can transition toward an alternative, high-quality growth model less reliant on the property sector.  

The summary report of the roundtable, conducted under the Chatham House Rule, details the in-depth discussion that centered on four key questions:

  1. How sharp and sustained will the slowdown in China’s property sector be?
  2. What are the most important determinants of this slowdown: government policy or structural factors? 
  3. What are the implications of China’s property slowdown for other areas of China’s economy? 

  4. What can China do to offset risks and negative consequences associated with the property slowdown?

     

 

In partnership with Asia Society Policy Institute's Center for China Analysis

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2023 China Business Conference: Washington’s View of China

SCCEI’s Impact Team attended the 13th Annual China Business Conference held in Washington, D.C. in May 2023. The team shares insights from the conference on issues raised surrounding the troubled U.S.-China relationship.
2023 China Business Conference: Washington’s View of China
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Scholars Gather for Roundtable to Analyze Causes, Prospects, and Challenges of China’s Common Prosperity Program

SCCEI joins forces with the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) to convene private roundtables comprised of social science experts who conduct data-intensive research into timely issues confronting China’s economy.
Scholars Gather for Roundtable to Analyze Causes, Prospects, and Challenges of China’s Common Prosperity Program
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US-China Business Council President Shares Insights on US-China Relations in Private Roundtable

SCCEI hosted a private roundtable discussion with the president of the US-China Business Council, Craig Allen, and a select group of Stanford faculty and business leaders, discussing technology competition and the shifting business environment between the US and China.
US-China Business Council President Shares Insights on US-China Relations in Private Roundtable
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The Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions and Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis co-organized a closed-door roundtable on the extent, causes, and implications of China’s current property sector slowdown and produced a summary report of the discussion.

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