Publication:

The Impact of Environmental Regulation on Firms' Product Quality: Evidence from Chinese Exporters. Environmental and Resource Economics, 2023.

• Abstract: This paper explores the effects of wastewater regulations on export product quality using disaggregated firm-product level data from China. Applying a difference-in-differences method, I find export product quality improved by 4.8%. The effects vary across heterogeneous firms and also optimize trade patterns. Decomposing the effects shows that intensive and extensive margins contribute equally to improving product quality. Analyzing the underlying mechanisms suggests that the effects can be attributed to updates in firms' technology resulting from adopting advanced machinery and equipment. Additionally, the regulation does not reduce firms' competitiveness despite rising production costs and declining labor demand.

• Best Second Year Paper Award.

• Providing a new thought to merge the Chinese-Customs Trade Statistics (CCTS) database and the Chinese Annual Survey of Industrial Firms (CASIF) database.

Working Papers:

1. The Effects of Environmental Regulations on Performance of Firms with Heterogeneous Resilience. With Liang Chen and Melissa Rui Wan (Canadian Journal of Economics, Revise & Resubmit) 

2. Leverage Adjustments to Environmental Regulation. With Chi Man Yip, Feng Wei, and Yuting Feng (Journal of Empirical Finance, Revise & Resubmit)

3. Expressway Expansion, International Trade, and Spatial Imbalance. With Xiaoying Wang (Under review)

4. Expressways and Firm Upgrading: Evidence from Export Product Quality. (Under review)

5. The Third-Country Impact of the US-China Trade War on Vietnamese Firms: A Global Value Chain Perspective.With Richard Beason, Runjuan Liu, and Phuong Thao Nguyen (Under review)

6. The Dark Side of Connectivity: Industrial Water Pollution and the Expressway Boom in China.

7. Market Access, Imports, and Global Value Chains: Evidence from China’s Expressway Network.