Building Tall, Falling Short: An Empirical Assessment of Chinese Skyscrapers

This project examines the determinants and economic efficiency of state-led urbanization, focusing on China's skyscraper development.  Local governments subsidized skyscraper development through discounted land prices. But 10 years after completion, subsidized skyscrapers yield few spatial spillovers. 

Real income for skilled and unskilled households varies across Chinese cities. Overall, housing costs in larger cities are substantial and they partly offset nominal income gains. A bell-shaped curve between real income and population is obtained, with housing costs higher than nominal income gains in the largest cities. Real income gains from moving to larger cities are greater for high-skilled households.

The first theory and evidence on the role of presale policies in the residential housing market! We construct a novel dataset of unfinished projects, presale policies, and land auction outcomes across 270 major cities in China. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the average bundle of presale policies is inferior to the Pareto frontier in our sampled cities. 

Many countries and regions have adopted talent policies aimed at attracting a skilled workforce—the key resource to technology and innovation-based economy. This study builds a comprehensive dataset of talent policies implemented by local governments in China, detailed job postings, proprietary migrant surveys, and patent data spanning from 2015 to 2020. The objective is to quantitatively assess the impact of these policies on the local labor market, migration patterns, and firms' innovation.