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This paper evaluates the role of technical change as a mediating channel through which the effects of institutions trickle down to affect growth volatility. Using different samples, estimation procedures and indicators of institutions and technical change, the results show that technical change is an important stabilizing force of growth volatility and that at least part of the stabilizing force of technical change originates from strong institutions. This conclusion does not appear to be generated by weak data, simultaneity bias or measurement errors and is remarkably robust to a large number of alternative specifications. JEL classifications: O11; O33; E32; O57 Keywords: Institutions; Technical change; Growth volatility; Economic growth

This paper examines the causal effect of land use policy on employment growth in Chinese cities. We find that a stricter Floor Area Ratio Regulation (FARR) leads to a reduction in employment growth in Chinese cities-a one percentage point reduction in FARR leads to a concurrent reduction of employment growth by 1.0–1.5 percentage points. More populated cities and labour-intensive manufacturing industries are found to be more severely affected by stricter FARR. Moreover, the effect of a stricter FARR is found to be less pronounced on state-owned firms compared to foreign-owned and privately-owned firms. Our main conclusions are robust to a variety of sensitivity tests, different instruments and alternative estimators. They suggest that imposing a stricter legal FARR incurs considerable employment costs for Chinese cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]