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Dissertation
Three Essays on Applied Econometrics
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
05/2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000007503
Abstract
This dissertation consists of three chapters, unified by a central inquiry into how institutional changes and policy shifts shape economic outcomes and social equity in China. Each chapter examines a distinct policy transformation—family planning, labor market reform, and trade liberalization—through the lens of inequality, mobility, and power. While the contexts differ, the overarching theme is clear: the distributional consequences of economic policies are profoundly mediated by social norms, political incentives, and pre-existing structures of advantage.
The first chapter investigates the long-term legacy of China’s family planning policies on intergenerational mobility. Drawing on a large-scale intergenerational dataset, it reveals how coercive fertility controls inadvertently reallocated resources across classes, thereby reshaping the landscape of social mobility. The second chapter turns to the labor market, examining how gender norms interacted with economic liberalization to entrench labor market disparities. Finally, the third chapter explores the unequal gains from China’s Free Trade Zones, showing how political connections condition who benefits from ostensibly neutral market reforms.
Together, these chapters reflect a sustained effort to understand the mechanisms through which state policy interacts with social hierarchies to produce lasting economic effects. They also reflect my evolving belief that meaningful economic analysis must be attentive not only to markets, but also to the social and political environments in which markets are embedded.
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Details
- Title
- Three Essays on Applied Econometrics
- Creators
- Bin Zhao
- Contributors
- Wesley Blundell (Co-Chair)Jonathan Yoder (Co-Chair)Benjamin Cowan (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- School of Economic Sciences
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 226
- Identifiers
- 99901220447701842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation