Speaker：Liu Feng，Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
Time: 13:30-15:00
Date: September 16, 2019
Venue: Room 106B, Zhonghui Building

Introduction to Speaker:
Dr. Feng Liu is an Associate Professor in the School of Management and Economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. His research focuses on the economics of risky health behaviors, including cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, and those that relate to obesity. He has published papers on Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Health Economics, Health Economics, etc. Before joining CUHK Shenzhen, he taught at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. He received his Ph.D. in policy analysis and management from Cornell University in 2007. He obtained his M.A. in economics from IUPUI, where he has received the Chancellor's Scholar Award for excellence in academic achievement in 2003.

Abstract:
This paper focuses on Guizhou Province, a region with difficult geographical conditions and poor economic development, to examine the effect of rainfall shocks on contemporaneous infant health and socioeconomic outcomes in China. The study results indicate that negative rainfall shocks are robustly correlated with higher infant mortality and lower birth weight. In the long run, early-life rainfall shortages limit an individual’s income and housing conditions. The study findings indicate a significant interaction of rainfall shock with the severity of water scarcity. This result implies that drinking water safety is an essential channel through which early-life rainfall shocks influence individual health endowments. However, agriculture production is not a likely channel for rainfall effects despite its association with infant mortality. Accordingly, our empirical results suggest that improving public facility coverage will reduce the vulnerability of infant health to adverse rainfall shocks in Guizhou and other developing areas.
nerated by China’s Huai River Policy, which provided subsidized coal for indoor heating during the winter to cities north of the Huai River but not to those to the south. The key findings are that children born just to the north of the Huai River were exposed to TSP concentrations that were about 50% higher, completed 0.83 fewer years of education, and earned 12%-22% lower incomes as adults, relative to children born just to the south. All findings are robust to using parametric and nonparametric estimation methods to adjust for distance from the Huai River, different kernel types, and alternative bandwidth sizes. The estimation of the income effects uses a RDD to quasi-experimentally vary TSP exposure, while also adjusting for all current city-level determinants of incomes by comparing migrants who are born just to the north and south of the Huai River.