Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions is a joint effort of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
Scott Rozelle and Dorien Emmer's research is featured in the Financial Times article, "China is suffering its own 'China Shock'"
This talk will be in Chinese (Mandarin).
In this talk, Professor Ge Zhaoguang (葛兆光) will take on fundamental questions on the evolution of “China” as a historical entity (“何谓中国”). His talk will problematize the concept of “China”, discuss issues related to Chinese identity and the “inner” and “outer” historical changes over time. These issues are examined in the context of China’s distinct transformation from a traditional dynasty into a modern state. Professor Ge will provide his reflections of understanding China from a comparative perspective.
This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP here.
Professor Ge Zhaoguang is a University Distinguished Professor of Fudan University in Shanghai, China. An eminent historian and public intellectual, he has published influential works in the areas of social thoughts, intellectual history, global history, and histography of China and Asia Studies. Many of His works are translated into English, including What Is China?: Territory, Ethnicity, Culture, and History (Harvard University Press, 2018); An Intellectual History of China (two volumes) (Brill, 2014, 2018). He is the recipient of many honors, including first “Princeton Global Scholar (2009), “Asia and Pacific Award” (2014) in Japan, “Paju Book Award” (2014) in South Korea, and HongKong Book Award (2015).
This talk is co-sponsored by Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS), the Department of East Asian Language and Civilization (EALC) and Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions (SCCEI).
Gunn Building (SIEPR), Koret-Taube Conference Center
366 Galvez Street, Stanford, CA 94305
This paper examines whether education can play a role in mitigating gender inequality in the process of sectoral reallocation of labour. We exploit the exogenous variations in educational attainment induced by the implementation of the 1986 Compulsory Education Law (CEL) in China. Using data from the 2018 wave of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) and a cohort difference-in-differences (DID) approach, we find that the CEL narrowed the gender gap in education for rural residents, but it did not reduce gender inequality in labour market outcomes, such as wage labour participation and wage rate. Our analysis reveals that this persistent inequality in labour market outcomes can be attributed to gender differences in migration and occupational choices. Specifically, rural males exposed to the CEL were more likely to migrate outside local provinces and work in low-skilled manufacturing sectors, while rural females tended to stay within local counties and work in low-skilled service sectors. Furthermore, we provide evidence that their differential migration responses are driven by household labour divisions and social gender norms, rather than disparities in cognitive skills.
Background: Micronutrient powder (MNP or Yingyangbao, a dietary supplement that contains multiple vitamins and minerals) programs can reduce the risk of anemia among children. One such program in China distributed free MNP to children aged 6–24 months in poor rural areas. However, there are indications that the generation of primary caregiver (i.e., parent or grandparent) may influence MNP feeding behavior. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and influencing factors of effective MNP feeding behavior among parents and grandparents in a rural developing setting.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 884 caregivers and children in formerly impoverished rural areas of Sichuan Province using multi-stage random sampling. Data were collected on caregivers’ MNP feeding behavior, their core perceptions and health beliefs about MNP, children’s responses to MNP, MNP delivery patterns, and demographic characteristics. Influencing factors of parents’ and grandparents’ MNP feeding behavior were analyzed using two-level logistic regression.
Results: Total effective MNP feeding behavior rate among caregivers was 40.95%. Grandparents demonstrated higher MNP adoption than parents (χ2 = 4.445, P = 0.035). After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, grandparents were more likely than parents to achieve effective MNP adoption (OR = 1.360, P = 0.035); child’s preference for MNPs (ORparental subgroup = 1.736, ORgrandparental subgroup = 1.496; P < 0.050) and caregiver’s self-efficacy (ORparental subgroup = 1.157, ORgrandparental subgroup = 1.393; P < 0.050) were influencing factors of feeding behavior for caregivers of both generations. Parents were also influenced by perceived barriers to feeding MNPs (OR = 0.904, P = 0.040), while grandparents were more strongly influenced by child’s discomfort to MNPs (OR = 0.240, P = 0.023) and caregiver’s knowledge about MNPs (OR = 1.557, P = 0.014).
Conclusion: Future efforts to improve the feeding behavior of caregivers in MNP programs both in China and abroad should improve children’s preference for MNP by changing its composition and taste, and increase caregivers’ feeding self-efficacy through health education. Moreover, parents should be taught to cope with time and ability barriers that may limit MNP adoption, while grandparents should be emphasized the importance and potential side effects of MNP.
The effects of psychological factors on complementary feeding behavior have been widely described, yet the mechanisms underlying the complex relationships among personality traits, self-efficacy, and complementary feeding behavior remain unclear. This cross-sectional study was conducted using a multi-stage cluster sampling process to select caregiver-child dyads in Western rural China. Personality traits, self-efficacy, and complementary feeding behavior were evaluated respectively. Both multiple logistic regression and Bayesian network structure (BNs) were used to explore these associations. A total of 787 caregiver-child dyads were enrolled. Results from multiple logistic regression indicated that caregivers with medium (OR = 2.05, p < 0.001) or high (OR = 1.58, p = 0.04) levels of extraversion, as well as those with high self-efficacy recording complementary feeding (OR = 2.08, p < 0.001), significantly increased the likelihood of meeting the criteria for the Infant and Child Feeding Index (ICFI) qualification. Further, BNs were employed to elucidate the pathways of influence, revealing a direct association between the caregiver's level of extraversion, level of self-efficacy and the ICFI. Additionally, the analysis indicated that a caregiver's openness indirectly influenced the ICFI through its influence on self-efficacy regarding complementary feeding. This is one of few studies exploring associations between personality traits, self-efficacy, and complementary feeding behavior. The study highlights the importance of understanding individual differences in caregiving and suggests that interventions should focus on enhancing caregivers' self-efficacy, rather than solely targeting personality traits.
Stanford Libraries and the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions are pleased to present the 2025 Dr. Sam-Chung Hsieh Memorial Lecture featuring Professor Matteo Maggiori who will be speaking on Geoeconomics and the US-China Great Power Competition.
To attend in person, please register here.
To attend online, please register here.
Professor Maggiori will discuss how the U.S. and China apply economic pressure to achieve their political and economic goals, and the economic costs and benefits that this competition is imposing on the world. A discussion of economic security policies that other countries are implementing to shield their economies.
Professor Maggiori is the Moghadam Family Professor of Finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His research focuses on international macroeconomics and finance. He is a co-founder and director of the Global Capital Allocation Project. His research topics have included the analysis of exchange rates under imperfect capital markets, capital flows, the international monetary system, reserve currencies, geoeconomics, tax havens, very long-run discount rates and climate change, and expectations and portfolio investment. His research combines theory and data with the aim of improving international economic policy. He is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research affiliate at the Center for Economic Policy Research. He received his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley.
Among a number of honors, he is the recipient of the Fischer Black Prize awarded to an outstanding financial economist under the age of 40, the Carnegie and Guggenheim fellowships, and the Bernacer Prize for outstanding contributions in macroeconomics and finance by a European economist under age 40.
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.
GSB Knight Management Center, Oberndorf Event Center
657 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305
In an era of disruptive global challenges, from climate crises to pandemics, understanding the drivers of drastic policy innovation is paramount. This study defines drastic policy innovation as a significant shift in governmental priorities through policies untried by most jurisdictions in a country. While policy entrepreneurs are often credited with initiating change, this study argues that political will is essential for enacting and implementing such innovative policies. Political will is defined as the degree of commitment among key decision makers to enact and implement specific policies. It is characterized by three key components: authority (the power to enact and enforce policy), capacity (the resources to implement it effectively), and legitimacy (the perceived rightfulness of actions by stakeholders). Through the case of low-carbon city experimentation in China, this study examines how political will drives the adoption and implementation of these policies. The findings reveal that a high level of political will is significantly linked to more drastically innovative policies being enacted and implemented and that when political will is institutionalized, implementation continues despite leadership turnover. These insights likely apply to other policy contexts and countries, regardless of regime type, albeit with some caveats.
Friday, April 18, 2025 | 12:00 pm -1:20 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way
Intergenerational social mobility and marital sorting by socioeconomic status have long been regarded as key indicators of societal openness. Since China’s economic reform, a sharp rise in economic inequality has coincided with declining social mobility, as individuals’ socioeconomic status increasingly mirrors that of their parents. At the same time, marital sorting by education has intensified, exacerbating inequality among Chinese families. While both trends suggest a growing degree of social closure, how they reinforce each other remains poorly understood. In this talk, I first review recent research on trends in social mobility and marital sorting in China. I then introduce a new measure of social closure, defined as the intergenerational association in educational attainment at the family level. Using a simple decomposition, I demonstrate how intergenerational educational mobility at the individual level and marital sorting have jointly shaped the evolution of social closure in China, and how the relative importance of these forces has differed between men and women.
Please register for the event to receive email updates and add it to your calendar. Lunch will be provided.
Xiang Zhou is Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. He is also a faculty affiliate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, and Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. His research broadly concerns inequality, education, causal inference, and statistical and computational methods. His work has appeared in American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Journal of Political Economy, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, PNAS, among other peer-reviewed journals. Before coming to Harvard, Zhou worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University. He received a PhD in Sociology and Statistics from the University of Michigan in 2015.
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall
On February 26, 2025 the Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions hosted a discussion on the role of industrial policy in U.S.-China competition, featuring insights from Skyline Scholars Loren Brandt from the University of Toronto and Xiaonian Xu from the China Europe International Business School, as well as Senior Fellow Mary Lovely from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The panelists examined the historical context, current trends, and future implications of China’s economic strategy and its impact on global trade.
Before moving to a question and answer session moderated by SCCEI Co-Director Scott Rozelle, each panelist shared their insights on the topic through short-form presentations.
China’s Growth: From Industrialization to Innovation
Panelists highlighted the transformation of China’s economy, characterizing its past expansion as a result of rapid industrialization rather than a so-called "economic miracle." They described China’s growth in two stages: an initial phase driven by market expansion and a later phase, emerging after 2008, where state-led stimulus measures played a dominant role.
It was noted that China’s post-industrialization period has led to economic stagnation, as capital accumulation peaked in 2005, leaving excess capacity in key sectors. With investment-driven growth slowing, experts emphasized the need for a shift toward innovation. However, this transition requires structural changes, including stronger rule of law, well-functioning markets, and better incentives for entrepreneurship. While China excels in commercialization, it still lags behind other leading economies in basic and applied research, critical components for sustained innovation.
China’s Industrial Dominance: Successes and Costs
The discussion also analyzed China’s dominance in industries such as lithium batteries, electric vehicles, solar panels, and shipbuilding. The country’s success in these sectors was attributed to industrial policies that strategically direct state resources into key industries. However, these policies come with economic inefficiencies, including excessive production capacity and stagnating productivity growth.
While China’s industrial policies aim to reduce reliance on foreign technology and foster indigenous innovation, they have also led to concerns about global trade imbalances. For instance, China’s trade surplus in manufactured goods now significantly surpasses that of historical export champions Germany and Japan, disrupting global markets. Despite substantial investments in research and development, overall productivity growth has slowed, raising questions about the long-term viability of its industrial policies.
Trade Tensions and U.S. Policy Responses
The panelists also explored how China’s development model has triggered trade tensions with the U.S. and other nations. They noted that industrial subsidies, state ownership, forced technology transfers, and non-tariff barriers have led to accusations of unfair trade practices. In response, the U.S. has imposed tariffs, blocked WTO dispute resolution mechanisms, and debated revisions to trade agreements, including the Phase 1 trade deal.
Some participants suggested that while U.S.-China relations remain contentious, future shifts in U.S. foreign policy—such as improved U.S.-Russia ties under the new Trump administration—could influence the direction of trade negotiations with China. However, national security concerns and economic competition in emerging sectors like AI and clean energy will likely keep tensions high.
Looking Ahead
The discussion collectively emphasized that China’s economy will face significant challenges if it doesn’t move from an investment-driven approach to one centered on innovation. While China continues to exert influence in key industries, questions remain about its ability to sustain long-term growth without addressing underlying inefficiencies. Meanwhile, U.S. trade policies will play a crucial role in shaping the future of global economic competition.
The event underscored the complexity of U.S.-China economic relations, with industrial policy at the heart of the debate. As both countries navigate these challenges, the global economy will continue to feel the ripple effects of their evolving competition.
During this SCCEI event, expert panelists Xiaonian Xu, Loren Brandt, and Mary Lovely shared insights on the historical context, current trends, and future implications of China’s economic strategy and its impact on global trade.
The Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions (SCCEI) is pleased to announce the launch of the Political Economy and Governance (PEG) Research Program. This program aims to provide empirical, multidisciplinary insights into China's political economy by examining the intricate interplay between political institutions, the political environment, and the economic system.
PEG is led by Stanford scholars Professor Jennifer Pan and Professor Yiqing Xu. Professor Pan specializes in the study of political communication, digital media, and authoritarian politics. Her research explores how governments and citizens interact in the digital age, with a specific focus on China. Professor Xu is an expert in quantitative methods and causal inference, particularly as they apply to political economy and governance in China. His research leverages advanced statistical techniques to study political institutions, media influence, and policy outcomes in authoritarian and transitional regimes. Pan and Xu combine their research interests and expertise to form the newest SCCEI research program.
At launch, Pan and Xu identified two key research areas for the program: China's digital environment and public opinion and ideology.
Research on China’s digital environment investigates how social media platforms are utilized by individuals and communities, what online activities reveal about societal attitudes, and how information circulates within and beyond China's borders. This empirical and computational approach sheds light on the complexities of online engagement and its broader social, political, and economic implications.
The study of public opinion and ideology explores how the Communist Party of China and societal forces construct ideological narratives to foster compliance, guide political behavior, and sustain governance. By analyzing large-scale public discourse and behavioral data, the research offers insights into the interaction between political institutions, belief systems, and mass opinion in China’s political landscape.
Through these efforts, the Political Economy and Governance Research Program aspires to contribute meaningfully to discussions surrounding China's social and economic development, providing valuable insights for academic scholars, policymakers, and international stakeholders seeking to understand China's role in the global economy.
For more information, visit the official PEG research page.
SCCEI's newest research program seeks to advance empirical, multidisciplinary insights into China’s political economy, including how political institutions, the political environment, and the economic system influence each other and shape the allocation of resources, production, and distribution of wealth in society.
