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This paper studies the impacts of the 2018 U.S. tariff surges on export prices and adjustments of sales across different markets of Chinese exporters. The finding that U.S. tariffs did not affect the free-on-board price of Chinese exports is robust to controlling for firm-related fixed effects. While firms' exports to the U.S. dropped significantly, exports to the E.U. increased moderately and domestic sales or exports to other foreign markets were barely affected. Finally, by surveying managers of exporting firms, we shed light on potential impediments to firms' adjustments of export prices and sales.

The ultimate resistance of steel H-section members under biaxial bending and compression has been discussed in the present paper. Finite element models taking account of geometrical and material nonlinearities are established and validated by previous laboratory test results. A series of parametric studies are then conducted considering different loading angles and a spectrum of flange width-to-thickness ratios, web width-to-thickness ratios and axial force ratios. An improved energy inflection method (EIM), which is verified by comparing the analytical results with numerical results, is proposed in order to determine the ultimate state of the members under biaxial bending. It is shown that the ultimate state determined by EIM occurs when the sectional stress distribution reaches the envelop line. Finally, a simple interaction formula is proposed to predict the ultimate capacity of the steel H-section columns subjected to biaxial bending and compression. It is verified that the interaction formula can provide a satisfactory prediction, in comparison against the European code which tends to offer a relatively conservative estimate. The proposed method is applicable to flange width-to-thickness ratios ranging from 8 to 28, web width-to-thickness ratios changing from 30 to 120, and axial force ratios varying from 0 to 0.4.

By using unique administrative personal income tax data covering the population of a middle‐sized Chinese city from 2009 to 2013, we explore how minimum wage adjustments affect wages of low‐wage workers. The empirical evidence documented in this paper suggests a unique pattern of minimum wage regulation: while it permits wages to stay below the prevailing minimum wage threshold temporarily, it does encourage a higher growth rate for wages below the threshold. Overall, such a pattern might help lessen any downward pressures on employment, while ensuring that low‐wage earners gradually get better off over time. (JEL J3, J6, P5)

This paper uses the rural household panel data collected by Research Center for Rural Economy to evaluate the impacts of China's agricultural tax abolition during 2004–2005 on farmers' income and production behavior. We find that the abolition of agricultural tax did not significantly affect agricultural production. The effects on input use and productivity are also found statistically insignificant. All these are consistent with the lump-sum property of the tax and imply little effect of the tax abolition on relaxing credit constraints to farmers. Finally, we find that the tax abolition did not increase farmers' net income significantly.

Using the National Family Planning and Fertility Health Survey of 1997 and 2001, we document the preferred fertility level, the actual fertility level and the imbalance between these two for Chinese women. We further study the associations of these outcomes with human capital structure measured by education levels and try to explore the mechanisms behind these associations. The main finding is that there exists severe fertility imbalance in China, and the direction of imbalance is opposite in urban and rural regions. Education plays an important role in determining such imbalance even taking into account other socioeconomic factors. In addition, we find evidence showing that besides economic factors, institutional factors such as the family planning policy may have contributed to the fertility imbalance and the role of education.