Shang-Jin Wei
Biographic Data
| ID | 3822944 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Shang-Jin Wei |
| GIVEN NAMES | Shang-Jin |
| FAMILY NAME | Wei |
| SIGNATURE | WEI S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Columbia Business School, Uris Hall, 3022 Broadway, Room 619 New York, NY 10027, Tsinghua Center for International Economic Research (CIER), and NBER (e-mail: ) |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 431 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
On the market failure of “missing pioneers”
Deadly discrimination: Implications of “missing girls” for workplace safety
We examine an indirect but potentially deadly consequence of the “missing girls” phenomenon. A shortage of brides causes many parents with sons of marriageable age to work harder and seek higher-paying but dangerous jobs. In response, employers invest less in workplace safety, which in turn increases work-related mortality. Drawing from a broad range of data sets and taking advantage of large regional and temporal variations in sex ratios in Chin…
The effects of financial development on foreign direct investment
From "Made in China" to "Innovated in China: Necessity, Prospect, and Challenges
After more than three decades of high growth based on its low-wage advantage and relatively favorable demographics-in combination with market-oriented reforms and openness to the world economy-China is at a crossroads with a much higher wage and a shrinking work force. Future growth will depend, by necessity, more on the generation of increased productivity, and domestic innovation will play an important part in this. In this paper, we assess the…
Home ownership as status competition: Some theory and evidence
Firm Exports and Multinational Activity Under Credit Constraints
We provide firm-level evidence that credit constraints restrict international trade and affect the pattern of multinational activity. We show that foreign affiliates and joint ventures in China have better export performance than private domestic firms in financially more vulnerable sectors. These results are stronger for destinations with higher trade costs and not driven by firm size or other sector characteristics. Our findings are consistent …
Tracing Value-Added and Double Counting in Gross Exports
This paper proposes an accounting framework that breaks up a country’s gross exports into various value-added components by source and additional double-counted terms. Our parsimonious framework bridges a gap between official trade statistics (in gross value terms) and national accounts (in value-added terms), and integrates all previous measures of vertical specialization and value-added trade in the literature into a unified framework. To illus…
Trade Liberalization and Embedded Institutional Reform: Evidence from Chinese Exporters
If trade barriers are managed by inefficient institutions, trade liberalization can lead to greater-than-expected gains. We examine Chinese textile and clothing exports before and after the elimination of externally imposed export quotas. Both the surge in export volume and the decline in export prices following quota removal are driven by net entry. This outcome is inconsistent with a model in which quotas are allocated based on firm productivit…
A Faith-Based Initiative Meets the Evidence: Does a Flexible Exchange Rate Regime Really Facilitate Current Account Adjustment
It is often asserted that a flexible exchange rate regime would facilitate current account adjustment. Using data on over 170 countries over the 1971–2005 period, we examine this assertion systematically. We find no strong, robust, or monotonic relationship between exchange rate regime flexibility and the rate of current account reversion, even after accounting for the degree of economic development and trade and capital account openness. This fi…
The role of intermediaries in facilitating trade
Estimating domestic content in exports when processing trade is pervasive
The Competitive Saving Motive: Evidence from Rising Sex Ratios and Savings Rates in China
The high and rising household savings rate in China is not easily reconciled with the traditional explanations that emphasize life cycle factors, the precautionary saving motive, financial development, or habit formation. This paper proposes a new competitive saving motive: as the sex ratio rises, Chinese parents with a son raise their savings in a competitive manner in order to improve their son’s relative attractiveness for marriage. The pressu…
Give Credit Where Credit Is Due: Tracing Value Added in Global Production Chains
This paper provides both a conceptual framework for decomposing a country's gross exports into value-added components by source and a new bilateral database on value-added trade. Our parsimonious framework integrates all previous measures of vertical specialization and value-added trade in the literature. To illustrate the potential of the decomposition, we present a number of applications including re-computing revealed comparative advantages an…
Outsourcing Tariff Evasion: A New Explanation for Entrepôt Trade
Do external interventions work? The case of trade reform conditions in IMF supported programs
The WTO promotes trade, strongly but unevenly
Offshore investment funds: Monsters in emerging markets
Pollution Havens and Foreign Direct Investment: Dirty Secret or Popular Myth
The "pollution haven" hypothesis refers to the possibility
The Quality of Bureaucracy and Capital Account Policies
The extent of bureaucracy varies extensively across countries, but the quality of bureaucracy within a country changes more slowly than economic policies. The authors propose that the quality of bureaucracy may be an important structural determinant of open economy macroeconomic policies - especially the imposition or removal of capital control. In their model, capital controls are an instrument of financial repression. They entail efficiency los…
Corruption and the Composition of Foreign Direct Investment: Firm-Level Evidence
This paper studies the impact of corruption in a host country on foreign investor's preference for a joint venture versus a wholly-owned subsidiary. There is a basic tradeoff in using local partners. On the one hand, corruption makes local bureaucracy less transparent and increases the value of using a local partner to cut through the bureaucratic maze. On the other hand, corruption decreases the effective protection of investor's intangible asse…
Natural Openness and Good Government
The author offers a possibly new interpretation of the connection between openness and good governance, with a conceptual model and some empirical evidence. Assuming that corruption and bad governance reduce international trade and investment more than domestic trade and investment, a "naturally more open economy"-as determined by its size and geography-would devote more resources to building good institutions and would display less corruption in…
Local Corruption and Global Capital Flows
REPORTED in this paper was inspired by a plane ride I took from China to the United States in 1996. Browsing the newspapers and in-flight magazines, I came across one story about the high level of official corruption in China, and another that extolled the extraordinarily large flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into China that year. 1 Later in the flight, I struck up a conversation with the passenger sitting next to me, an American business…
How Taxing is Corruption on International Investors
This paper studies the effect of corruption on foreign direct investment. The sample covers bilateral investment from twelve source countries to 45 host countries. There are two central findings. First, a rise in either the tax rate on multinational firms or the corruption level in a host country reduces inward foreign direct investment (FDI). In a benchmark estimation, an increase in the corruption level from that of Singapore to that of Mexico …
Does "Grease Money" Speed Up the Wheels of Commerce?
In an environment in which bureaucratic burden and delay are exogenous, an individual firm may find bribes helpful to reduce the effective red tape it faces. The "efficient grease" hypothesis asserts therefore that corruption can improve economic efficiency and that fighting bribery would be counter-productive. This need not be the case. In a general equilibrium in which regulatory burden and delay can be endogenously chosen by rent-seeking burea…
Corruption in Economic Development: Beneficial Grease, Minor Annoyance, or Major Obstacle
No AccessPolicy Research Working Papers25 Jun 2013Corruption in Economic Development: Beneficial Grease, Minor Annoyance, or Major Obstacle?Authors/Editors: Shang-Jin WeiShang-Jin Weihttps://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-2048SectionsAboutPDF (0.1 MB) ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In Abstract:February 1999 Corruption is a major obstacle to economic development. It reduces domestic investment, discour…
How Taxing is Corruption on International Investors
This paper studies the effect of corruption on foreign direct investment. The sample covers bilateral investment from twelve source countries to 45 host countries. There are two central findings. First, a rise in either the tax rate on multinational firms or the corruption level in a host country reduces inward foreign direct investment (FDI). In a benchmark estimation, an increase in the corruption level from that of Singapore to that of Mexico …
The Competitive Saving Motive: Evidence from Rising Sex Ratios and Savings Rates in China
The high and rising household savings rate in China is not easily reconciled with the traditional explanations that emphasize life cycle factors, the precautionary saving motive, financial development, or habit formation. This paper proposes a new competitive saving motive: as the sex ratio rises, Chinese parents with a son raise their savings in a competitive manner in order to improve their son’s relative attractiveness for marriage. The pressu…
Trading blocs and the Americas: The natural, the unnatural, and the super-natural
Home ownership as status competition: Some theory and evidence
Estimating domestic content in exports when processing trade is pervasive
From "Made in China" to "Innovated in China: Necessity, Prospect, and Challenges
After more than three decades of high growth based on its low-wage advantage and relatively favorable demographics-in combination with market-oriented reforms and openness to the world economy-China is at a crossroads with a much higher wage and a shrinking work force. Future growth will depend, by necessity, more on the generation of increased productivity, and domestic innovation will play an important part in this. In this paper, we assess the…
The effects of financial development on foreign direct investment
Deadly discrimination: Implications of “missing girls” for workplace safety
We examine an indirect but potentially deadly consequence of the “missing girls” phenomenon. A shortage of brides causes many parents with sons of marriageable age to work harder and seek higher-paying but dangerous jobs. In response, employers invest less in workplace safety, which in turn increases work-related mortality. Drawing from a broad range of data sets and taking advantage of large regional and temporal variations in sex ratios in Chin…
Do external interventions work? The case of trade reform conditions in IMF supported programs
On the market failure of “missing pioneers”
Insignificant and Inconsequential Hysteresis: The Case of U.S. Bilateral Trade
Trading blocs and the Americas: The natural, the unnatural, and the super-natural
Does "Grease Money" Speed Up the Wheels of Commerce?
In an environment in which bureaucratic burden and delay are exogenous, an individual firm may find bribes helpful to reduce the effective red tape it faces. The "efficient grease" hypothesis asserts therefore that corruption can improve economic efficiency and that fighting bribery would be counter-productive. This need not be the case. In a general equilibrium in which regulatory burden and delay can be endogenously chosen by rent-seeking burea…
Corruption in Economic Development: Beneficial Grease, Minor Annoyance, or Major Obstacle
No AccessPolicy Research Working Papers25 Jun 2013Corruption in Economic Development: Beneficial Grease, Minor Annoyance, or Major Obstacle?Authors/Editors: Shang-Jin WeiShang-Jin Weihttps://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-2048SectionsAboutPDF (0.1 MB) ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In Abstract:February 1999 Corruption is a major obstacle to economic development. It reduces domestic investment, discour…
Does Corruption Relieve Foreign Investors of the Burden of Taxes and Capital Controls
October 1999 - Other things being equal, countries with higher tax rates, more corruption, or more restrictions on capital account transactions attract less foreign investment. Taxes and capital controls hinder foreign investment, and bureaucratic corruption adds to those burdens rather than reducing them. In a sample of 14 source countries making bilateral investments in 45 host countries, Wei finds that taxes, capital controls, and corruption a…
Corruption and the Composition of Foreign Direct Investment: Firm-Level Evidence
This paper studies the impact of corruption in a host country on foreign investor's preference for a joint venture versus a wholly-owned subsidiary. There is a basic tradeoff in using local partners. On the one hand, corruption makes local bureaucracy less transparent and increases the value of using a local partner to cut through the bureaucratic maze. On the other hand, corruption decreases the effective protection of investor's intangible asse…
Natural Openness and Good Government
The author offers a possibly new interpretation of the connection between openness and good governance, with a conceptual model and some empirical evidence. Assuming that corruption and bad governance reduce international trade and investment more than domestic trade and investment, a "naturally more open economy"-as determined by its size and geography-would devote more resources to building good institutions and would display less corruption in…
Local Corruption and Global Capital Flows
REPORTED in this paper was inspired by a plane ride I took from China to the United States in 1996. Browsing the newspapers and in-flight magazines, I came across one story about the high level of official corruption in China, and another that extolled the extraordinarily large flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into China that year. 1 Later in the flight, I struck up a conversation with the passenger sitting next to me, an American business…
How Taxing is Corruption on International Investors
This paper studies the effect of corruption on foreign direct investment. The sample covers bilateral investment from twelve source countries to 45 host countries. There are two central findings. First, a rise in either the tax rate on multinational firms or the corruption level in a host country reduces inward foreign direct investment (FDI). In a benchmark estimation, an increase in the corruption level from that of Singapore to that of Mexico …
Pollution Havens and Foreign Direct Investment: Dirty Secret or Popular Myth
The "pollution haven" hypothesis refers to the possibility
The Quality of Bureaucracy and Capital Account Policies
The extent of bureaucracy varies extensively across countries, but the quality of bureaucracy within a country changes more slowly than economic policies. The authors propose that the quality of bureaucracy may be an important structural determinant of open economy macroeconomic policies - especially the imposition or removal of capital control. In their model, capital controls are an instrument of financial repression. They entail efficiency los…
Offshore investment funds: Monsters in emerging markets
The WTO promotes trade, strongly but unevenly
Outsourcing Tariff Evasion: A New Explanation for Entrepôt Trade
Do external interventions work? The case of trade reform conditions in IMF supported programs
Give Credit Where Credit Is Due: Tracing Value Added in Global Production Chains
This paper provides both a conceptual framework for decomposing a country's gross exports into value-added components by source and a new bilateral database on value-added trade. Our parsimonious framework integrates all previous measures of vertical specialization and value-added trade in the literature. To illustrate the potential of the decomposition, we present a number of applications including re-computing revealed comparative advantages an…
The role of intermediaries in facilitating trade
Estimating domestic content in exports when processing trade is pervasive
The Competitive Saving Motive: Evidence from Rising Sex Ratios and Savings Rates in China
The high and rising household savings rate in China is not easily reconciled with the traditional explanations that emphasize life cycle factors, the precautionary saving motive, financial development, or habit formation. This paper proposes a new competitive saving motive: as the sex ratio rises, Chinese parents with a son raise their savings in a competitive manner in order to improve their son’s relative attractiveness for marriage. The pressu…
Trade Liberalization and Embedded Institutional Reform: Evidence from Chinese Exporters
If trade barriers are managed by inefficient institutions, trade liberalization can lead to greater-than-expected gains. We examine Chinese textile and clothing exports before and after the elimination of externally imposed export quotas. Both the surge in export volume and the decline in export prices following quota removal are driven by net entry. This outcome is inconsistent with a model in which quotas are allocated based on firm productivit…
A Faith-Based Initiative Meets the Evidence: Does a Flexible Exchange Rate Regime Really Facilitate Current Account Adjustment
It is often asserted that a flexible exchange rate regime would facilitate current account adjustment. Using data on over 170 countries over the 1971–2005 period, we examine this assertion systematically. We find no strong, robust, or monotonic relationship between exchange rate regime flexibility and the rate of current account reversion, even after accounting for the degree of economic development and trade and capital account openness. This fi…
Tracing Value-Added and Double Counting in Gross Exports
This paper proposes an accounting framework that breaks up a country’s gross exports into various value-added components by source and additional double-counted terms. Our parsimonious framework bridges a gap between official trade statistics (in gross value terms) and national accounts (in value-added terms), and integrates all previous measures of vertical specialization and value-added trade in the literature into a unified framework. To illus…
Firm Exports and Multinational Activity Under Credit Constraints
We provide firm-level evidence that credit constraints restrict international trade and affect the pattern of multinational activity. We show that foreign affiliates and joint ventures in China have better export performance than private domestic firms in financially more vulnerable sectors. These results are stronger for destinations with higher trade costs and not driven by firm size or other sector characteristics. Our findings are consistent …
Home ownership as status competition: Some theory and evidence
The effects of financial development on foreign direct investment
Economics (25 works) · Business (15 works) · Global trade and economics (13 works) · International economics (13 works) · International trade (12 works) · China (9 works) · Corruption and Economic Development (9 works) · International Business and FDI (9 works) · Language change (8 works) · Macroeconomics (8 works)