James Kai‐sing Kung
Biographic Data
| ID | 1008319 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James Kai‐sing Kung |
| GIVEN NAMES | James Kai‐sing |
| FAMILY NAME | Kung |
| SIGNATURE | KUNG J K S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hong Kong University of Science and Technology |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9733-8638 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 463 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
War shocks, migration, and historical spatial development in China
Trading Favours through the Revolving Door: Evidence from China’s Primary Land Market
By matching data on land transactions in China’s primary land market with detailed curricula vitae of board directors in publicly listed firms, we identify a pattern of ‘revolving-door’ exchanges between local officials and firms. The officials discounted the price of land that they sold to the said firms, and were subsequently rewarded with board appointments upon retirement. Specifically, these ‘client officials’ are three times as likely to be…
Social Mobility in Late Imperial China: Reconsidering the “Ladder of Success” Hypothesis
Using unique data, we test whether the civil examination system in late imperial China (1796–1905) constituted a route to social mobility. We find that measures of both ability and “family type”—specifically the upper gentry family type—consistently predict success in the highest level exam, the jinshi, while direct proxies for wealth do not. Specifically, the higher the level of the father’s education the greater the odds of passing the first st…
Malthus Goes to China: The Effect of "Positive Checks" on Grain Market Development, 1736-1910
After peaking around the mid-eighteenth century, grain market integration in China declined by a colossal 80 percent amid a twofold increase in population and remained at low levels for well over a century. Markets only resumed their growth momentum after the largest peasant revolt-the Taiping Rebellion-wiped out roughly one-sixth of the Chinese population starting 1851. This U-shaped pattern of grain market integration distinguished China from E…
Long Live Keju! The Persistent Effects of China’s Civil Examination System
China's civil examination system (keju), an incredibly long-lived institution, has a persistent impact on human capital outcomes today. Using the variation in the density of jinshi—the highest qualification—across 278 Chinese prefectures in the Ming-Qing period (c. 1368–1905) to proxy for this effect, we find that a doubling of jinshi per 10,000 population leads to an 8.5% increase in years of schooling in 2010. The persistent effect of keju can …
Busting the “Princelings”: The Campaign Against Corruption in China’s Primary Land Market
Using data on over a million land transactions during 2004–2016 where local governments are the sole seller, we find that firms linked to members of China's supreme political elites—the Politburo—obtained a price discount ranging from 55.4% to 59.9% compared with those without the same connections. These firms also purchased slightly more land. In return, the provincial party secretaries who provided the discount to these “princeling” firms are 2…
Friends with Benefits: How Political Connections Help to Sustain Private Enterprise Growth in China
By analysing data from a survey of 511 Chinese private enterprises, we find that their owners respond to government discrimination by developing political connections with government officials. A one‐standard‐deviation increase in the insecurity of property rights has the effect of increasing the number of ‘friends’ in the government by a substantial 22%. These ‘friends’ significantly help to mitigate by half the negative effect arising from the …
Do land revenue windfalls create a political resource curse? Evidence from China
Fiscal incentives and policy choices of local governments: Evidence from China
Can cultural norms reduce conflicts? Confucianism and peasant rebellions in Qing China
The shaping of an institutional choice: Weather shocks, the Great Leap Famine, and agricultural decollectivization in China
The Emperor Strikes Back: Political Status, Career Incentives and Grain Procurement during China's Great Leap Famine
Using China's Great Leap Famine as example, this article shows how political career incentives can produce disastrous outcomes under the well-intended policies of a dictator. By exploiting a regression discontinuity design, the study identifies the causal effect of membership status in the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee—full (FM) Versus alternate members (AM)—on grain procurement. It finds that the difference in grain procurement bet…
Autarky and the Rise and Fall of Piracy in Ming China
We examine the impact of rigorous trade suppression during 1550-1567 on the sharp rise of piracy in this period of Ming China. By analyzing a uniquely constructed historical data set, we find that the enforcement of a "sea (trade) ban" policy led to a rise in pirate attacks that was 1.3 times greater among the coastal prefectures more suitable for silk manufactures-our proxy for greater trade potential. Our study illuminates the conflicts in whic…
Inequality of land tenure and revolutionary outcome: An economic analysis of China's land reform of 1946–1952
Induced Institutional Change or Transaction Costs? The Economic Logic of Land Reallocations in Chinese Agriculture
The communal land rights system in China, which combines individualised farming with periodic land reallocations, provides a good case for testing the economic logic of land reallocations. Analysis of the results of a unique village survey reveals that a village's choice of land reallocation type - partial or large in scale - is significantly affected by transaction cost considerations, which vary according to village topography and size, rather …
Climate Shocks and Sino-nomadic Conflict
Employing droughts and floods to proxy for changes in precipitation, this paper shows nomadic incursions into settled Han Chinese regions over a period of more than two thousand years—the most enduring clash of civilizations in history—to be positively correlated with less rainfall and negatively correlated with more rainfall. Consistent with findings that economic shocks are positively correlated with conflicts in modern sub-Saharan Africa when …
Commercialization as exogenous shocks: The effect of the soybean trade and migration in Manchurian villages, 1895–1934
The Tragedy of theNomenklatura: Career Incentives and Political Radicalism during China's Great Leap Famine
A salient feature of China's Great Leap Famine is that political radicalism varied enormously across provinces. Using excessive grain procurement as a pertinent measure, we find that such variations were patterned systematically on the political career incentives of Communist Party officials rather than the conventionally assumed ideology or personal idiosyncrasies. Political rank alone can explain 16.83% of the excess death rate: the excess proc…
Human capital, migration, and a 'vent' for surplus rural labour in 1930s China: The case of the Lower Yangzi
A farm survey conducted in a prosperous Chinese county (Wuxi) in the Lower Yangzi region in the 1930s shows that a 'vent' existed for surplus farm workers to obtain off-farm migrant employment and that the slack in farming created by this migration process attracted those from the lower-wage districts, resulting in the creation of a hierarchy of labour markets differentiated by education and skills. Our analysis also reveals that there were cruci…
Women’s Contributions to the Household Economy in Pre-1949 China: Evidence from the Lower Yangzi Region
The economic role of women in pre-1949 China has been the subject of an ongoing debate. Farm surveys conducted in the highly commercialized region of the Lower Yangzi in the early to mid-twentieth century show that the value of women’s overall economic contribution was very similar to men’s. In particular, while a gendered division of labor existed, it was likely more notable within sericulture rather than between sericulture (in which women were…
Rural Cadres and Governance in China: Incentive, Institution and Accountability
The Decline of Township-and-Village Enterprises in China’s Economic Transition
The Causes of China's Great Leap Famine, 1959-1961
Aroused by the unexpected magnitude of excess deaths estimated by Western demographers, recently there has been a revival of interest in the causes of the Great Chinese famine of 1958-61. Depending on the underlying assumptions and methodologies employed, the excess deaths of this famine are estimated to range from a minimum of 16.5 million to as many as 30 million. With a population of roughly 660 million in 1958, the year marking the origin of …
Off-Farm Labor Markets and the Emergence of Land Rental Markets in Rural China
Choice of Land Tenure in China: The Case of a County with Quasi-Private Property Rights
This article is organized around the following themes: Section II provides a background on this important land tenure experiment as well as on the choice of the county selected for it. This is succeeded by a brief description of the data and the main findings in Section III. Section IV provides a number of hypotheses and explanatory variables employed in the regression analyses. Estimation results of the surveyed farmers' current preferences rega…
The Tragedy of theNomenklatura: Career Incentives and Political Radicalism during China's Great Leap Famine
A salient feature of China's Great Leap Famine is that political radicalism varied enormously across provinces. Using excessive grain procurement as a pertinent measure, we find that such variations were patterned systematically on the political career incentives of Communist Party officials rather than the conventionally assumed ideology or personal idiosyncrasies. Political rank alone can explain 16.83% of the excess death rate: the excess proc…
Do land revenue windfalls create a political resource curse? Evidence from China
Long Live Keju! The Persistent Effects of China’s Civil Examination System
China's civil examination system (keju), an incredibly long-lived institution, has a persistent impact on human capital outcomes today. Using the variation in the density of jinshi—the highest qualification—across 278 Chinese prefectures in the Ming-Qing period (c. 1368–1905) to proxy for this effect, we find that a doubling of jinshi per 10,000 population leads to an 8.5% increase in years of schooling in 2010. The persistent effect of keju can …
Fiscal incentives and policy choices of local governments: Evidence from China
Common Property Rights and Land Reallocations in Rural China: Evidence from a Village Survey
Farmers' Preferences Regarding Ownership and Land Tenure in Post-Mao China: Unexpected Evidence from Eight Counties
Can cultural norms reduce conflicts? Confucianism and peasant rebellions in Qing China
The Decline of Township-and-Village Enterprises in China’s Economic Transition
The Causes of China's Great Leap Famine, 1959-1961
Aroused by the unexpected magnitude of excess deaths estimated by Western demographers, recently there has been a revival of interest in the causes of the Great Chinese famine of 1958-61. Depending on the underlying assumptions and methodologies employed, the excess deaths of this famine are estimated to range from a minimum of 16.5 million to as many as 30 million. With a population of roughly 660 million in 1958, the year marking the origin of …
Rural Cadres and Governance in China: Incentive, Institution and Accountability
Egalitarianism, subsistence provision, and work incentives in China's agricultural collectives
Choice of Land Tenure in China: The Case of a County with Quasi-Private Property Rights
This article is organized around the following themes: Section II provides a background on this important land tenure experiment as well as on the choice of the county selected for it. This is succeeded by a brief description of the data and the main findings in Section III. Section IV provides a number of hypotheses and explanatory variables employed in the regression analyses. Estimation results of the surveyed farmers' current preferences rega…
Friends with Benefits: How Political Connections Help to Sustain Private Enterprise Growth in China
By analysing data from a survey of 511 Chinese private enterprises, we find that their owners respond to government discrimination by developing political connections with government officials. A one‐standard‐deviation increase in the insecurity of property rights has the effect of increasing the number of ‘friends’ in the government by a substantial 22%. These ‘friends’ significantly help to mitigate by half the negative effect arising from the …
Property Rights and Fertilizing Practices in Rural China: Evidence from Northern Jiangsu
The premise that the changing economic environment has Chinese farm households more carefully allocating their labor does not mean they no longer fertilize their contracted plots with organic nutrients. Our study of 135 farm households in five Chinese village communities shows that the allegation of farmers neglecting to preserve the soil fertility of their contracted plots is wholly unfounded. Farmers still accumulate organic fertilizer from a n…
Social Mobility in Late Imperial China: Reconsidering the “Ladder of Success” Hypothesis
Using unique data, we test whether the civil examination system in late imperial China (1796–1905) constituted a route to social mobility. We find that measures of both ability and “family type”—specifically the upper gentry family type—consistently predict success in the highest level exam, the jinshi, while direct proxies for wealth do not. Specifically, the higher the level of the father’s education the greater the odds of passing the first st…
The shaping of an institutional choice: Weather shocks, the Great Leap Famine, and agricultural decollectivization in China
Trading Favours through the Revolving Door: Evidence from China’s Primary Land Market
By matching data on land transactions in China’s primary land market with detailed curricula vitae of board directors in publicly listed firms, we identify a pattern of ‘revolving-door’ exchanges between local officials and firms. The officials discounted the price of land that they sold to the said firms, and were subsequently rewarded with board appointments upon retirement. Specifically, these ‘client officials’ are three times as likely to be…
Inequality of land tenure and revolutionary outcome: An economic analysis of China's land reform of 1946–1952
Commercialization as exogenous shocks: The effect of the soybean trade and migration in Manchurian villages, 1895–1934
So What If There Is Income Inequality? The Distributive Consequence of Nonfarm Employment in Rural China
It is interesting to note, that of the studies concerning income distribution in rural China, few have examined the effect of household employment in the nonfarm sector on levels of mean income or, more generally, standard of living. The most important question, from our perspective, is whether nonfarm employment and income opportunity contribute to rising farm household income while simultaneously widening the income gap among the farm household…
Women’s Contributions to the Household Economy in Pre-1949 China: Evidence from the Lower Yangzi Region
The economic role of women in pre-1949 China has been the subject of an ongoing debate. Farm surveys conducted in the highly commercialized region of the Lower Yangzi in the early to mid-twentieth century show that the value of women’s overall economic contribution was very similar to men’s. In particular, while a gendered division of labor existed, it was likely more notable within sericulture rather than between sericulture (in which women were…
Autarky and the Rise and Fall of Piracy in Ming China
We examine the impact of rigorous trade suppression during 1550-1567 on the sharp rise of piracy in this period of Ming China. By analyzing a uniquely constructed historical data set, we find that the enforcement of a "sea (trade) ban" policy led to a rise in pirate attacks that was 1.3 times greater among the coastal prefectures more suitable for silk manufactures-our proxy for greater trade potential. Our study illuminates the conflicts in whic…
Human capital, migration, and a 'vent' for surplus rural labour in 1930s China: The case of the Lower Yangzi
A farm survey conducted in a prosperous Chinese county (Wuxi) in the Lower Yangzi region in the 1930s shows that a 'vent' existed for surplus farm workers to obtain off-farm migrant employment and that the slack in farming created by this migration process attracted those from the lower-wage districts, resulting in the creation of a hierarchy of labour markets differentiated by education and skills. Our analysis also reveals that there were cruci…
Malthus Goes to China: The Effect of "Positive Checks" on Grain Market Development, 1736-1910
After peaking around the mid-eighteenth century, grain market integration in China declined by a colossal 80 percent amid a twofold increase in population and remained at low levels for well over a century. Markets only resumed their growth momentum after the largest peasant revolt-the Taiping Rebellion-wiped out roughly one-sixth of the Chinese population starting 1851. This U-shaped pattern of grain market integration distinguished China from E…
The Emperor Strikes Back: Political Status, Career Incentives and Grain Procurement during China's Great Leap Famine
Using China's Great Leap Famine as example, this article shows how political career incentives can produce disastrous outcomes under the well-intended policies of a dictator. By exploiting a regression discontinuity design, the study identifies the causal effect of membership status in the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee—full (FM) Versus alternate members (AM)—on grain procurement. It finds that the difference in grain procurement bet…
Food and Agriculture in Post-Reform China: The Marketed Surplus Problem Revisited
Egalitarianism, subsistence provision, and work incentives in China's agricultural collectives
China's collectivisation puzzle: A new resolution
According to total factor productivity trends in Chinese agriculture, China achieved productivity gains both when collectivising (1954-58) and when decollectivising (1979-84) its agriculture. If the productivity gains from decollectivisation were due mainly to eliminating the incentive problems of collective farms, how the initial collectivisation could also have been associated with gains in productivity presents a major historical puzzle, We su…
Farmers' Preferences Regarding Ownership and Land Tenure in Post-Mao China: Unexpected Evidence from Eight Counties
Common Property Rights and Land Reallocations in Rural China: Evidence from a Village Survey
Property Rights and Fertilizing Practices in Rural China: Evidence from Northern Jiangsu
The premise that the changing economic environment has Chinese farm households more carefully allocating their labor does not mean they no longer fertilize their contracted plots with organic nutrients. Our study of 135 farm households in five Chinese village communities shows that the allegation of farmers neglecting to preserve the soil fertility of their contracted plots is wholly unfounded. Farmers still accumulate organic fertilizer from a n…
So What If There Is Income Inequality? The Distributive Consequence of Nonfarm Employment in Rural China
It is interesting to note, that of the studies concerning income distribution in rural China, few have examined the effect of household employment in the nonfarm sector on levels of mean income or, more generally, standard of living. The most important question, from our perspective, is whether nonfarm employment and income opportunity contribute to rising farm household income while simultaneously widening the income gap among the farm household…
Off-Farm Labor Markets and the Emergence of Land Rental Markets in Rural China
Choice of Land Tenure in China: The Case of a County with Quasi-Private Property Rights
This article is organized around the following themes: Section II provides a background on this important land tenure experiment as well as on the choice of the county selected for it. This is succeeded by a brief description of the data and the main findings in Section III. Section IV provides a number of hypotheses and explanatory variables employed in the regression analyses. Estimation results of the surveyed farmers' current preferences rega…
The Causes of China's Great Leap Famine, 1959-1961
Aroused by the unexpected magnitude of excess deaths estimated by Western demographers, recently there has been a revival of interest in the causes of the Great Chinese famine of 1958-61. Depending on the underlying assumptions and methodologies employed, the excess deaths of this famine are estimated to range from a minimum of 16.5 million to as many as 30 million. With a population of roughly 660 million in 1958, the year marking the origin of …
The Decline of Township-and-Village Enterprises in China’s Economic Transition
Rural Cadres and Governance in China: Incentive, Institution and Accountability
Women’s Contributions to the Household Economy in Pre-1949 China: Evidence from the Lower Yangzi Region
The economic role of women in pre-1949 China has been the subject of an ongoing debate. Farm surveys conducted in the highly commercialized region of the Lower Yangzi in the early to mid-twentieth century show that the value of women’s overall economic contribution was very similar to men’s. In particular, while a gendered division of labor existed, it was likely more notable within sericulture rather than between sericulture (in which women were…
Induced Institutional Change or Transaction Costs? The Economic Logic of Land Reallocations in Chinese Agriculture
The communal land rights system in China, which combines individualised farming with periodic land reallocations, provides a good case for testing the economic logic of land reallocations. Analysis of the results of a unique village survey reveals that a village's choice of land reallocation type - partial or large in scale - is significantly affected by transaction cost considerations, which vary according to village topography and size, rather …
Climate Shocks and Sino-nomadic Conflict
Employing droughts and floods to proxy for changes in precipitation, this paper shows nomadic incursions into settled Han Chinese regions over a period of more than two thousand years—the most enduring clash of civilizations in history—to be positively correlated with less rainfall and negatively correlated with more rainfall. Consistent with findings that economic shocks are positively correlated with conflicts in modern sub-Saharan Africa when …
Commercialization as exogenous shocks: The effect of the soybean trade and migration in Manchurian villages, 1895–1934
The Tragedy of theNomenklatura: Career Incentives and Political Radicalism during China's Great Leap Famine
A salient feature of China's Great Leap Famine is that political radicalism varied enormously across provinces. Using excessive grain procurement as a pertinent measure, we find that such variations were patterned systematically on the political career incentives of Communist Party officials rather than the conventionally assumed ideology or personal idiosyncrasies. Political rank alone can explain 16.83% of the excess death rate: the excess proc…
Human capital, migration, and a 'vent' for surplus rural labour in 1930s China: The case of the Lower Yangzi
A farm survey conducted in a prosperous Chinese county (Wuxi) in the Lower Yangzi region in the 1930s shows that a 'vent' existed for surplus farm workers to obtain off-farm migrant employment and that the slack in farming created by this migration process attracted those from the lower-wage districts, resulting in the creation of a hierarchy of labour markets differentiated by education and skills. Our analysis also reveals that there were cruci…
Inequality of land tenure and revolutionary outcome: An economic analysis of China's land reform of 1946–1952
Can cultural norms reduce conflicts? Confucianism and peasant rebellions in Qing China
The shaping of an institutional choice: Weather shocks, the Great Leap Famine, and agricultural decollectivization in China
The Emperor Strikes Back: Political Status, Career Incentives and Grain Procurement during China's Great Leap Famine
Using China's Great Leap Famine as example, this article shows how political career incentives can produce disastrous outcomes under the well-intended policies of a dictator. By exploiting a regression discontinuity design, the study identifies the causal effect of membership status in the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee—full (FM) Versus alternate members (AM)—on grain procurement. It finds that the difference in grain procurement bet…
Autarky and the Rise and Fall of Piracy in Ming China
We examine the impact of rigorous trade suppression during 1550-1567 on the sharp rise of piracy in this period of Ming China. By analyzing a uniquely constructed historical data set, we find that the enforcement of a "sea (trade) ban" policy led to a rise in pirate attacks that was 1.3 times greater among the coastal prefectures more suitable for silk manufactures-our proxy for greater trade potential. Our study illuminates the conflicts in whic…
Fiscal incentives and policy choices of local governments: Evidence from China
Do land revenue windfalls create a political resource curse? Evidence from China
China (31 works) · Economics (29 works) · Political science (23 works) · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance (19 works) · Geography (17 works) · Law (16 works) · Agriculture (13 works) · Market economy (13 works) · Business (11 works) · Economic growth (10 works)