Areas of Research
1. Population Health and Development Economics
1.1. Health, Wellbeing, and Vulnerable Populations
1.2. Economic Development
2. Empirical Industrial Organization
1.1. Health, Wellbeing, and Vulnerable Populations
1.2. Economic Development
2. Empirical Industrial Organization
1.1. Health, Wellbeing, and Vulnerable Populations
Recent publications (2022 and later):
Hongbing Xu, Castiel Chen Zhuang*, Vanessa Oddo, Espoir Bwenge Malembaka, Xinhou He, Qinghong Zhang, and Wei Huang. "Maternal Preconceptional and Prenatal Exposure to El Niño-Southern Oscillation Levels and Child Mortality: A Multi-country Study." Nature Communications, 15: 6034, July 2024.
- Exposure: (maternal) ENSO levels
- Outcome: (child) mortality
Saizi Xiao, and Castiel Chen Zhuang*. "Measuring and Decomposing the Multidimensional Financial Wellbeing in Malaysia", Empirical Economics Letters, 23(4): 125-140, April 2024.
- Exposure: demographic characteristics
- Outcome: financial well-being and its gaps
Zhihan Cui, Lu Liu, and Castiel Chen Zhuang*. "The Impact of the Removal of Zero-COVID Policies on Subjective Well-being: Evidence from a Digital World." Economics Letters, 229: 111189, August 2023.
- Exposure: the removal of Zero-COVID policies
- Outcome: subjective well-being/mental health
Castiel Chen Zhuang, Jessica Jones-Smith, Sarah Andrea, Anjum Hajat, and Vanessa Oddo. "Maternal Precarious Employment and Child Overweight/Obesity in the United States", Preventive Medicine, 169: 107471, April 2023.
- Exposure: (maternal) precarious employment
- Outome: (child) overweight/obesity
Vanessa Oddo*, Castiel Chen Zhuang, Jessica Jones-Smith, Anjum Hajat, Jerome Dugan, Sarah Andrea, and Trevor Peckham. "Association between Precarious Employment and BMI in the United States." Obesity, 31(1): 234-242, January 2023. (Editors' Choice)
- Exposure: precarious employment
- Outcome: overweight/obesity
Hongbing Xu, Castiel Chen Zhuang* Xinpeng Guan, Xinghou He, Rongshan Wu, Tong Wang, Qinghong Zhang, and Wei Huang. "Associations of Climate Variability Driven by El Niño-Southern Oscillation with Excess Mortality and Related Medical Costs in Chinese Elderly." Science of the Total Environment, 851: 158196, December 2022.
- Exposure: climate risks posed by ENSO
- Outcome: elderly mortality; medical costs
OLDER PUBLICATIONS (BEFORE 2022)
Vanessa Oddo*, Castiel Chen Zhuang, Sarah Andrea, Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot, Trevor Peckham, Daniel Jacoby, and Anjum Hajat. "Changes in Precarious Employment in the United States: A Longitudinal Analysis." Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 47(3): 171-180, April 2021.
- Exposure: demographic characteristics
- Outcome: unequal changes in precarious employment
Yi Chen, Julie Shi*, and Castiel Chen Zhuang. "Income-dependent Impacts of Health Insurance on Medical Expenditures: Theory and Evidence from China." China Economic Review, 53: 290-310, February 2019.
- Exposure: participating in the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme
- Outcome: out-of-pocket spending
夏庆杰*，孙祁祥，庄晨：“中国经济转型时期性别工资差异分析”，《社会科学战线》，2015年第10期，第38-55页。
- Exposure: demographic characteristics
- Outcome: gender wage gap
秦雪征*，周建波，辛奕，庄晨：“城乡二元医疗保险结构对农民工返乡意愿的影响——以北京市农民工为例”，《中国农村经济》，2014年第2期，第56-68页。
- 全文转载于人大复印报刊资料《统计与精算》2014年第4期
- Exposure: participating in the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme versus participating in any of the urban medical insurances (i.e., the Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance or Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance)
- Outcome: willingness to return home
Working Papers/Work In Progress
"Sex Education, Dating Behaviors, and Fertility Intentions: Evidence from a Classroom Field Experiment in Chinese University", with Zhihan Cui, Fangwen Lu, Xuezheng Qin, and Jinxian Yao
- Presented in the Liaoning University International Conference 2024 ("China Development and Global Economy") (by coauthor)
- See our AEA RCT Registry
- Exposure: gender composition of study group
- Outcome: sexual health literacy, dating behaviors, fertility intentions, etc.
"Evaluating the Economic Impact of BKSS in Sarawak", with Saizi Xiao, Wong Chin Yoong, and Sharifah Nabilah binti Syed Salleh (half-baked working paper)
- Exposure: participating in the BKSS (a program targeting households with income in the bottom 40% group)
- Outcome: a wide range of outcomes (with a focus on health)
"Assessing the Economic Impact of Temporary Basic Income (TBI) in Malaysia", with MIER and UNDP (work in progress)
- Exposure: receiving TBI (a program targeting the poor)
- Outcome: a wide range of outcomes (with a focus on health)
1.2. Economic Development
Recent publications (2022 and later):
Jiayi Liu, Yanbin Li, Yanhan Xu, Castiel Chen Zhuang*, Yang Hu, and Yue Yu. "Impacts of Built Environment on Urban Vitality in Cultural Districts: A Case Study of Haikou and Suzhou", Land, 13(6): 840, June 2024.
- Exposure: built environment measures covering the transport system, function features, and spatial quality dimensions
- Outcome: urban vitality measures based on nighttime light and average population density
OLDER PUBLICATIONS (BEFORE 2022)
秦雪征，庄晨*，杨汝岱：“计划生育对子女教育水平的影响——来自中国的微观证据”，《经济学(季刊)》，2018年第3期，第897-922页。
- Exposure: being a single child due to the One-Child Policy
- Outcome: human capital investment by households, i.e., educational attainment
Xuezheng Qin, Castiel Chen Zhuang*, and Rudai Yang. "Does One-Child Policy Improve Children's Human Capital in Urban China? A Regression Discontinuity Design." Journal of Comparative Economics, 45(2): 287-303, May 2017.
- Exposure: being a single child due to the One-Child Policy
- Outcome: human capital investment by households, i.e., educational attainment
Xuezheng Qin*, Tianyu Wang, and Castiel Chen Zhuang. "Intergenerational Transfer of Human Capital and Its Impact on Income Mobility: Evidence from China." China Economic Review, 38: 306-321, April 2016.
- Exposure: intergenerational transfer of human capital
- Outcome: income mobility
WORKING PAPERS/WORK IN PROGRESS
"Heterogeneous Impacts of Trade Liberalization on Export Entry and Training: A Multi-Destination Perspective", with Chujian Shao and Qiliang Chen (R&R at World Economy)
- Manuscript available on SSRN
- Presented in the WEAI's 99th Annual Meeting, and 2024 International Conference on Empirical Economics (ICEE) at PSU Altoona
- Exposure: changes in tariffs
- Outcome: firms' export entry and human capital investment decisions
"Exploring rural revitalization strategies using multi-source data: Experience from Changshu and Taicang", with Yanbin Li, Xingyao Song, Leilei Sun, Jiayi Liu, and Meng Yang (Submitted)
- Exposure: build environment measures covering the transport, industry, and environment dimensions
- Outcome: rural vitality measures based on daytime crowd density and nighttime light
"Is Younger Better? The Impacts of Early Promotion on Chinese Politicians and Regional Economic Development", with Yunxuan Zhu
- Manuscript available on SSRN
- Exposure: promotion timing
- Outcome: regional excess GDP growth, carbon emissions, and innovation activities
"Unintended Psychological and Behavioral Consequences of Poverty Alleviation", with Zhengwen Liu and Yibo Wu (work in progress)
- Exposure: living in the key (poor) counties with more national assistance for rural revitalization
- Outcome: a wide range of psychological and behavioral outcomes
"The lost generation: Long-term impacts of Cultural Revolution on schooling and income", with Yunxuan Zhu and Yiqian Zheng
- Exposure: Cultural Revolution (education deprivation)
- Outcome: schooling, income
2. Empirical Industrial Organization
Recent publications (2022 and later):
Feng Yu, Ning Li, Castiel Chen Zhuang*, and Jingwei Chen. "Can Rising Urban House Prices Actually Limit the Outward FDI by Firms in a Home Country? A Story from China." Journal of International Money and Finance, 147: 103164, September 2024.
- Exposure: house prices
- Outcome: outward FDI, domestic investment, and resource misallocation in the manufacturing industry
Nur Nadia Kamil, Saizi Xiao, Sharifah Nabilah Syed Salleh, Hongbing Xu, and Castiel Chen Zhuang*. "Nonlinear Impacts of Climate Anomalies on Oil Palm Productivity." Heliyon, 10(15): e35798, Auguest 2024.
- Exposure: climate risks posed by ENSO
- Outcome: productivity of the oil palm industry
Qifan Huang, Saizi Xiao, and Castiel Chen Zhuang*. "The Heterogeneous Impact of COVID-19 in a Two-Sided Market: Evidence from a Live-Streaming Platform." Applied Economics, 54(49): 5670-5689, October 2022.
- Presented in the NABE TEC 2020 Virtual Poster Sessions
- Exposure: COVID-19 severity from the fans' and celebrities' sides
- Outcome: fans' virtual gifting behaviors, celebrities' live-commerce decisions and sales on a live-streaming platform
Qifan Huang, and Castiel Chen Zhuang*. "Training, Productivity, and Wages: An Investigation of China's Manufacturing Enterprises in a Privatization Era." Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, 30(2): 269-288, Apr 2022.
- Exposure: human capital investment by employers, i.e., employee (on-the-job) training
- Outcome: productivity and wages in the manufacturing industry
WORKING PAPERS/WORK IN PROGRESS
"Examining the Zero-Markup Drug Policy in China: A Structural Approach", with Qifan Huang and Zhentong Lu (Submitted)
- Manuscript available on SSRN
- Previously circulated as "Vertical Separation and Price Negotiation: A Case Study of China's Lipid-Lowering Drug Industry"
- Presented at Nankai University, and Liaoning University, and also in the 2022 SUFE-JinanIO Conference (previously known as China-VIOS), 2022 AEA/ASSA Annual Meeting, 2021 China Meeting of Econometric Society, WEAI's 2021 Virtual International Conference (presented by coauthor; check out the session information here), and WEAI's 96th Annual Conference (check out the session information here)
- Slides (Jun 16, 2022)
- Exposure: the Zero-Markup Drug Policy
- Outcome: price; firm revenue; firm profit; consumer utility in the lipid-lowering drug market
"Health Insurance Design with Heterogeneous Preferences", with Julie Shi and Xi Wang (working paper)
- Previously circulated as "Understanding Deductible and Reimbursement Maximum: A Study of Rural China's Tiered Medical System", "Understanding Deductible and Reimbursement Maximum in a Tiered Medical System" and "Health Insurance Design in a Tiered Medical System"
- Presented at Renmin University of China, Capital University of Economics and Business, and Central University of Finance and Economics and also in the 2022 ARIA Annual Meeting, and WEAI's 98th Annual Meeting
- Exposure: different designs of the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme
- Outcome: hospital choice and spending in the healthcare market
"Product Assortment and Competition: Evidence from Live-Streaming Platform Influencers", with Ying-chin Chen, Qifan Huang, and Yushi Wang
- Manuscript (an early version) available on SSRN
- Previously circulated as "The Causal Impact of Market Competition on Product Variety: A Deep Neural Network Representation Learning Approach" and "Live-Commerce Product Assortment and Competition: Evidence from Live-Streaming Platform Celebrities"
- Presented in the 2021 INFORMS Annual Meeting (presented by coauthor; check out the session abstract here)
- Exposure: competition shocks on a live-streaming platform
- Outcome: product variety on a live-streaming platform
"Environmental Policy and Innovation: A Systematic Evaluation in China", with Xianling Long and Zhiqiang Wang (half-baked working paper)
- Exposure: the stringency and uncertainty levels of China's environmental policies
- Outcome: firms' innovation activities
"Do Joint Ventures Innovate More? Micro-evidence from China", with Jingwei Chen, Guanhua Hu, and Feng Yu (half-baked working paper)
- Exposure: inward FDI
- Outcome: firms' innovation activities
"Heterogeneous Policy Impacts: A Modal Regression Approach", with Ying-chin Chen (half-baked working paper)
- Manuscript available upon request
- Exposure: any policy changes (e.g., implementing the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme)
- Outcome: any economic decisions (e.g., participants' out-of-pocket spending)
