Exposure to political movements may influence individuals' behavior, such as decisions on fields of study. On the basis of the Hong Kong Population Census 2011 and 2016, this paper investigates the difference in fields of study between two cohorts, one exposed to the Occupy Central movement in 2014, by applying the cohort difference-in-differences approach. As a global business center, business-related fields of study have been popular among students in Hong Kong. However, the political movement triggered the interests of young people to study several nonbusiness-related fields, such as humanities, social and behavioral sciences, life sciences, health, and law. Significant differences in the effect exist across language speaking, household income, and gender. The study shows that political movement may affect education by triggering public awareness of related knowledge, but it varies by human capital, identity, and family background.

This study explores the factors that affect visits between national leaders in the world, shedding light on their ancestral origins. We combine data on visits involving Chinese leaders from 1993 to 2013 with genetic distance that captures ethnic differences transmitted intergenerationally. Empirical analysis shows that there are more visits between Chinese leaders and leaders of countries that have smaller genetic distance to China. Furthermore, the impact of genetic distance is achieved primarily through trade and positioning of political relationships, which are proxies for economic and political exchanges, respectively. Our findings show that ancestral relatedness plays an important part in modern diplomatic activities.

This research examines the impact of mass media on citizens' awareness of environmental protection based on a natural experiment on the release of the environmental documentary titled "Under the Dome" on February 28, 2015 in China. Through a regression discontinuity design with a typical city sample, we find that the release of "Under the Dome" resulted in 2 to 3 more daily calls about air pollution concerns to the citizen hotline per county, more than twice the number of those before the shock. Considering the impact of major political events and public holidays, our results remain robust. Evidence of the "Under the Dome" effects is also found in calls about other pollution and non-pollution concerns in a longer period. We argue that the mass media generally plays a role in triggering the public awareness.

This study investigates the influence of external political shock under a special institutional endowment brought by a high degree of autonomy, taking Macao as an example. Macao monopolizes gambling industry in China under the arrangement of “One country, Two systems” and depends heavily on tourists from Mainland China. To illustrate the problem under such an institutional endowment, this study estimates the impact of the decline in casino consumption caused by the 2014 anti-corruption campaign in Mainland China, by employing the difference in differences and synthetic control approaches. The results indicate that Macao experienced approximately three years of decline in the revenue growth of the gambling industry, which is nearly 231 billion MOP, under the political shock. Thus, an economy with institutional endowment may also face uncertainties caused by exogenous political shock. This paper contributes to the extension of the concept related to the tourism-induced Dutch disease.

It has been proven that language is a symbol of culture and politics. This study investigates the cohort effect of the Hong Kong's handover on the language speaking in adulthood based on the 2006 and 2011 Hong Kong population censuses. We find that Mandarin is more likely to be used by Hong Kong natives who were exposed to the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997 during their school-age years, especially for the generation that were exposed during their primary-school years. Besides, the Hong Kong natives who experienced the handover in their school-age years insist on speaking Mandarin even when the political environment changes from the year 2006 to 2011. Our evidences reveal that political change that occurs during school-age years has a long-term impact on an individual's behavior in their later adulthood. Further discussion implies that exposure to political change such as regime transfer during school-age years impacts individual's national identity.

This paper quantifies the Chinese consumers' boycott of Japanese cars that immediately followed the anti-Japanese demonstrations in September 2012. We decompose the total boycott effect into two effects: the transfer effect, which refers to consumers switching from Japanese to non-Japanese brands, and the cancellation effect, which captures decline in sales due to consumers exiting the market. We find that the cancellation effect accounts for more than 90% of the total decline in Japanese car sales, implying a small substitution effect in the automobile market, even though brands of all other countries have benefited. This paper provides evidence of both negative and positive impacts of political conflicts for different market participants and includes analysis with welfare implications.

This paper analyzes the effects of second languages skills on labor market outcomes in Hong Kong. Using data from the Hong Kong Population Censuses, we find that both Mandarin and English language skills are linked to improved labor market performance, and the premiums for English are much larger than those for Mandarin. We further show that the sovereignty transfer of Hong Kong from the UK to China in 1997 has strengthened the positive role of Mandarin and English language skills in finding a job in Hong Kong. The political change has also increased the earnings of people with the ability to speak Mandarin. As a comparison, the earnings premium for speaking English has declined in magnitude after the sovereignty transfer. Investigating into the mechanisms, we show that the rising premiums for Mandarin language skills are operated through choices of occupations and industry sectors. Our findings suggest that important political changes can affect the economic returns to language skills in the labor market.