Yifan ZHANG will defend his thesis on Tuesday 2nd September at 02:00pm (Auditorium 3, bâtiment TSE and also by zoom)
Title: Essays in Economic History and Political Economy
Supervisors: Professors Paul SEABRIGHT and Victor GAY
Memberships are:
- Paul SEABRIGHT : Professor, Ecole TSE, Supervisor
- Victor GAY : Assistant Professor, Ecole TSE, co-supervisor
- Karine VAN DER STRAETEN : Senior Researcher, CNRS/TSE-R Examinatrice
- Melanie Meng XUE : Assistant Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science Examinatrice
- Shuang ZHANG : Professor, Imperial College London Rapporteure
- Jeanet BENTZEN : Professor, University of Copenhagen Rapporteure
Abstract :
Chapter 1: The Transmission of Son Preference
In this chapter, I jointly identify and compare the horizontal and vertical transmission of son preference. I exploit a cultural feature, ancestor worship, which emphasizes the importance of having a son to measure the son preference in China. To isolate the cultural effect of son preference from institutions, a historical experiment, Kuomingtang’s (KMT) Retreat to Taiwan, is employed to explore the cultural transmission of son preference. Between 1945 and 1954, KMT resettled approximately one million Chinese in Taiwan, without regard for their cultural background, to meet the party’s needs. This bold move resulted in local Taiwanese and Chinese migrants being exposed to groups with vastly different son preference beliefs and behaviors. By combining KMT Retreat and the introduction of sex-selective abortion in 1985, I dissect the transmission of son preference in three categories: from migrants to locals, through paternal lines, and within migrant communities. The horizontal transmission from migrants to locals is stronger for locals who are culturally closer to migrants and who have a higher chance of interacting with migrants. I also find migrants’ ancestor worship permanently altered locals’ beliefs about ancestors, family, and sons. Results in this paper indicate that, even though vertical transmission has the highest marginal effect, the total effect of horizontal transmission is larger than vertical transmission.
Chapter 2: Radio (Counter-)propaganda and Job Choices
This chapter examines the influence of international counter-propaganda on political attitudes and economic outcomes in authoritarian contexts. Utiliz ing the decriminalization of foreign radio listening in mainland China between1979 and 1989, I study the impact of exposure to the Voice of Free China (VFC) broadcasts from Taiwan. Combining predicted radio signal strength with individual-level census and survey data, and employing a cohort-based difference-in-differences strategy, I find that greater exposure to VFC broad casts decreased the likelihood of bureaucratic employment, increased entrepreneurial activity, reduced trust in local officials, and lowered Chinese Communist Party membership. These results contribute to the literature on media effects, po litical trust formation, and political participation under authoritarian regimes by providing new evidence on the role of external media in shaping individual political and economic outcomes.
Chapter 3: The Economic Determinants of Taiwanese Support for Reunification with Mainland China (with Nancy Qian and Marco Tabellini)
This chapter studies the effects of economic growth in mainland China on Taiwanese support for political and economic reunification. It documents that mainland growth is negatively associ ated with support for reunification and income amongst less educated Taiwanese and positively associated with support for reunification and income amongst more educated Taiwanese. These and other results are consistent with economic prosperity increasing support or tolerance for autocratic political systems.
