Qianqian Shang

About Me

I am an Assistant Professor in School of Economics of Shandong University.

I graduated from CEMFI in June 2023 with a Ph.D. degree in economics.

My main research interests are development economics, labor economics and political economy.

You can find my CV here.

Research

Publications

• Recent Progress in Hukou Reform and Labor Market Integration in China: 1996-2022
  with Zhu Chen and Jipeng Zhang. China Economic Review, 2024. [Link]

• The Impact of within-Household Relative Income on Happiness: Does Gender Identity Matter?
  with Wan-Hsin Liu and Yongkun Yin. Journal of Research in Gender Studies, 2018. [Link]

Working Papers

• Locked Doors, Unlocked Corruption: The Potential Pitfalls of Revolving Door Restrictions
  with Jiong Zhu. [pdf]
  

  Abstract

  While revolving door restrictions are intended to curb corruption, we find these restrictions may paradoxically lead to an unintended increase in corrupt activities. Using a simple approach that incorporates detection probability in corrupt acts, we construct a comprehensive data set on Chinese corruption-related convictions to estimate ``actual corruption rates". As explicit favors can no longer be safely offered through part-time and post-government employment after the implementation of a revolving door reform in China, we observe a rise in bribe-taking among incumbent officers, while other forms of corruption remain relatively unaffected. We also find that officers who leave full-time government service under revolving door regulations tend to possess greater industry-specific expertise.

• Internal Migration and Education: The Role of Old-age Support
  Presentations: the 2022 EEA-ESEM Congress, Northwest A&F University (2022), the 2022 European Winter Meeting of the Econometric Society, Economics of Migration.

  Abstract

  In most developing countries, pension systems are poorly developed and the elderly rely on their children for old-age support. However, with increasing trends in rural-to-urban migration, many elder parents are left alone with limited assistance. This paper investigates whether parents may strategically lower the education investment in children to reduce the probability of their children out-migrating. In particular, I examine whether the Hukou reforms, which greatly relaxed migration restrictions in rural China, had detrimental effects on educational investments. Exploiting the variation in the timing of exposure to Hukou reforms across prefectures and cohorts, I show that the probability of children being enrolled in high school decreases by 0.1 standard deviations if the migration restrictions at high-school entry age are relaxed by one standard deviation. The effect is larger for parents whose ideal living arrangement at old age is to live near their children. Furthermore, the negative effects only exist for parents without pension entitlement. The results suggest that in contexts with weak policies for old-age support, lifting migration restrictions may have detrimental effects on human capital accumulation.

• The Effects of Robots on Labor Markets and Political Attitudes: The Case of China [pdf]
  Presentation: University of Warwick (2022).

  Abstract

  Robots have been increasingly adopted in production processes throughout the world. This paper evaluates the impact of industrial robots on labor markets and political attitudes in China. Based on robot data from Chinese customs, I construct a direct measurement of robot exposure for each prefecture. Exploiting the variation in robot exposure across years and prefectures, I find that robots have no effect on general employment and wages, but there is heterogeneity regarding firm types. However, I find important effects on unrest: one more robot per thousand workers leads to 1.6 times more episodes of labor unrest. This indicates the replacement effects of robots on labor could generate substantial discontent among some sectors, even though may not generate aggregate negative employment effects. I also explore the effects on individual attitudes using the China Family Panel Studies. I construct an individual exposure to robots based on occupational vulnerability. I find that exposure to robots negatively affects people's evaluation of the government's performance and trust in the local government.

Teaching

• Family Economics, Shandong University, Spring 2024
• TA for Introductory Mathematics, by Mateo Montenegro, CEMFI, Fall 2021