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This paper examines the impact of highway construction on the size distribution of manufacturing firms using Chinese firm and highway network data. I construct instrumental variables using historical and counterfactual road approaches to identify the causal effects of highway construction. I find that highway construction can increase firm size dispersion and market concentration. Areas near highways have a higher number of firms, more outsourcing activities, and more large firms; while areas further from highways have a higher share of new entry firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study performed a comparative analysis of changes in the operating status of initial surviving disaster‐stricken businesses and non‐disaster‐stricken businesses in Lushan County, China, after a devastating earthquake on 20 April 2013. It used a logistic regression model to explore the key factors associated with 'post‐disaster continued business operation' in the long term. Field data were collected from 1,078 businesses and questionnaire data from 263 small businesses between 2013 and 2017. The results indicate that a higher proportion of initial surviving disaster‐stricken businesses than non‐disaster‐stricken businesses managed to remain operational in each observation period. The continued operation of disaster‐stricken businesses after the earthquake was positively associated with the owner's age, previous disaster experience, pre‐disaster financial conditions, closure duration, and borrowing money from family or friends. A negative association was found with the size of the business. The findings serve as a vital reference for strategies to promote post‐disaster continued business operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Income inequality in China has been much documented and debated. However, one important aspect of income inequality - social insurance inequality - has been largely understudied. We use a large national panel of firm data to examine the possible influence of various firm characteristics on the inequalities in social insurance participation and generosity in the period 2004-07. Our findings reveal substantial ownership sector and regional gaps in social insurance provision by firms, with the private domestic sector and those in the central region lagging behind. Unionized firms, larger firms, and firms with greater market shares also tend to provide better social insurance to their employees. While being an exporting firm is linked with greater social insurance participation and generosity, being a purely exporting firm, however, is associated with reduced social insurance generosity. Lastly, highly educated workers receive substantially better social insurance coverage than their less educated peers. These social insurance inequalities are highly relevant as China pushes forward with establishing a unified social insurance system across urban-rural boundaries, ownership sectors and industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the size distribution of exporting and non-exporting firms in a panel of Chinese provinces. The power law exponents of exporting firms are significantly less than those of non-exporting firms. The average power law exponents fell from 0.74 in 1998 to 0.64 in 2007 for exporting firms, and from 1.03 in 1998 to 0.83 in 2007 for non-exporting firms. Further analysis showed that credit constraints have a significant negative effect on the exponents of the size distribution of exporting firms, suggesting that smaller firms are more credit-constrained than larger firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]