Working Papers
Communist Propaganda and Women's Status
(Job Market Paper)
March 2024, Revise and Resubmit at Journal of Development Economics.
Abstract:
This paper examines how communist propaganda affects gender norms and behavior in China. Improving women’s status and promoting gender equality was a significant theme of revolutionary propaganda in China from the 1950s to the 1970s. Exploiting plausibly exogenous variation resulting from topography, I find that exposure to radio broadcasts during the Cultural Revolution improved educational gender equality, and such effects were stronger in areas with weaker Confucian norms. Using individual-level census data, I also find positive radio effects on females’ family-related and career-related outcomes. I explore possible mechanisms with two surveys on gender norms, and my evidence is consistent with rational updating. The significant persuasion effects disappeared when more recent data were employed, implying temporary communist influences on entrenched social norms.
Whither Journalism? The Impact of Social Media on News Production in China (with Yanhui Wu)
September 2023, draft available upon request
Abstract:
This paper studies whether and how the surge of social media affects traditional media’s provision of high-quality journalism in China. Employing a difference-in-differences design, we show that the early-stage penetration of Weibo, China’s largest micro-blogging platform, decreased newspapers’ production of politically biased content while prompting them to produce more investigative reports. Our findings are robust when the initial Weibo penetration is instrumented with pre-Weibo Internet searches for early Weibo celebrities. We find evidence consistent with two mechanisms: (1) the competition mechanism through which social media reduces newspapers’ advertising revenues and thus pressures them to produce more market-oriented news and (2) the cost-reduction mechanism through which social media reduces the cost and political risk of reporting on sensitive events.
(Job Market Paper)
March 2024, Revise and Resubmit at Journal of Development Economics.
Abstract:
This paper examines how communist propaganda affects gender norms and behavior in China. Improving women’s status and promoting gender equality was a significant theme of revolutionary propaganda in China from the 1950s to the 1970s. Exploiting plausibly exogenous variation resulting from topography, I find that exposure to radio broadcasts during the Cultural Revolution improved educational gender equality, and such effects were stronger in areas with weaker Confucian norms. Using individual-level census data, I also find positive radio effects on females’ family-related and career-related outcomes. I explore possible mechanisms with two surveys on gender norms, and my evidence is consistent with rational updating. The significant persuasion effects disappeared when more recent data were employed, implying temporary communist influences on entrenched social norms.
Whither Journalism? The Impact of Social Media on News Production in China (with Yanhui Wu)
September 2023, draft available upon request
Abstract:
This paper studies whether and how the surge of social media affects traditional media’s provision of high-quality journalism in China. Employing a difference-in-differences design, we show that the early-stage penetration of Weibo, China’s largest micro-blogging platform, decreased newspapers’ production of politically biased content while prompting them to produce more investigative reports. Our findings are robust when the initial Weibo penetration is instrumented with pre-Weibo Internet searches for early Weibo celebrities. We find evidence consistent with two mechanisms: (1) the competition mechanism through which social media reduces newspapers’ advertising revenues and thus pressures them to produce more market-oriented news and (2) the cost-reduction mechanism through which social media reduces the cost and political risk of reporting on sensitive events.
Work in Progress
- "Cultural Mobilization" (with Ting Chen and James Kai-sing Kung)
- "Monitoring Effect of Local Journalism in China " (with Yanhui Wu and Yi-Ting Yu)
- "Educational Homogamy and Intergenerational Mobility" (with Zhifeng Sun)