Finance and Income Inequality: Test of Alternative Theories (2007)
George Clarke, Lixin Colin Xu, Heng-fu Zou
Abstract: Although theoretical models make distinct predictions about the relation between financial sector development and income inequality, little empirical research has been conducted to compare...
Lixin Colin Xu, Lixin Colin Xu, The World Bank, ...
Many recent studies have looked at the macroeconomic, cultural and institutional determinants of corruption at the cross-national level. This study complements these existing cross-country studies by...
Stijn Claessens, Simeon Djankov, Lixin Colin Xu, World Bank
The performance of East Asian corporations, often considered stellar before the 1997 financial crisis, sharply deteriorated following the crisis. This decline has sparked an intense debate. Some have...
Abstract. Many recent studies have looked at the macroeconomic, cultural and institutional determinants of corruption at the cross-national level. Using enterprise-level data on bribes paid to...
Mary M. Shirley, Lixin Colin Xu, Hongling Wang, Oliver White, Chunlin Zhang
World Bank. We are grateful for the constructive comments of two referees and of Pablo Spiller (the
DECRG, The World Bank Correspondence to: (2007)
Lixin Colin Xu, Lixin Colin Xu
especially Tamar Manuelyan-Atinc and Peter Fallen. I have also benefited from the association with George Tolley of the University of Chicago, who involved me into his project about rural migration...
Control, Incentives and Competition: The Impact of Reform on Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (2007)
Abstract. Through the lens of the theory of the firm, I examine how a series of reforms affected performance of Chinese state-owned enterprises with a panel data of more than 500 firms. The study...
The Timing of Marriage in China (2007)
Lixin Colin Xu, Limin Wang, David Coady For
Abstract. This paper examines the determinants of the marriage timing decisions of young men and women in China. We pay particular attention to distinguishing three explanations for marriage timing:...
(corresponding author)
V. Joseph Hotz, Lixin Colin Xu, Marta Tienda, Avner Ahituv, Thank Rebecca Kilburn, Kenneth Couch, ...
drafts of this paper and Jorge Menèndez for his research assistance. We especially wish to thank James Heckman for providing us with a version of the statistical software used in some of the...
Contracts between Government and State Enterprises * by (2007)
Mary M. Shirley, Lixin Colin Xu
Abstract: This article analyzes the experience with performance contracts between developing country governments and the managers of their state owned enterprises. It identifies how problems of...
Francesca Recanatini, Scott J. Wallsten, Lixin Colin Xu
Rigorous data-collection is important for accurate policy analysis. The paucity of data in developing and transition economies makes policy analysis in such countries difficult. The World Bank has...
Using a sample of Chinese state-owned enterprises spanning 1980 to 1994, we investigate the factors that determine the sources of finance for firm-level fixed investment, including retained earnings,...
The Case of Chinese State-owned Enterprises (2007)
Taye Mengistae, Lixin Colin Xu, Lixin Colin Xu
* We thank Chong-En Bai for useful discussions, and Canice Prendergast (the editor) and two anonymous referees for constructive comments. Colin Xu also acknowledges the influence of Sherwin Rosen in...
OWNERSHIP, COMPETITION, AND CORRUPTION: BRIBE TAKERS VERSUS BRIBE PAYERS (2007)
Abstract. Over the past few years, many studies have looked the macroeconomic, cultural and institutional determinants of corruption. This study complements these existing cross-country studies by...
Lorena Alcázar, Lixin Colin Xu, Ana Maria Zuluaga
I. Introduction............................................................................................................. 1 II. Circumstances in the Water Sector Leading to...
Lixin Colin Xu, Lixin Colin Xu, The World Bank, ...
Many recent studies have looked at the macroeconomic, cultural and institutional determinants of corruption at the cross-national level. This study complements these existing cross-country studies by...
A Survey of Firm-Level Surveys of World Bank (2007)
This paper aims to take a stock of current World Bank surveys and discuss further needs for data to complement recent theoretical advances. Instead of focusing on every aspect of firm surveys, I...
World Bank Policy, Scott Wallsten, George Clarke, Luke Haggarty, Rosario Kaneshiro, Roger Noll, ...
this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. Policy Research Working Papers...
Wallsten, Scott, Clarke, George, Haggarty, Luke, Kaneshiro, Rosario, Noll, Roger, Shirley, Mary, ...
We construct comprehensive and consistent datasets on telecommunications and electricity regulations in developing countries through extensive surveys of regulators. The database of...
Wallsten, Scott, Clarke, George, Haggarty, Luke, Kaneshiro, Rosario, Noll, Roger, Shirley, Mary, ...
We construct comprehensive and consistent datasets on telecommunications and electricity regulations in developing countries through extensive surveys of regulators. The database of...
Wallsten, Scott, Clarke, George, Haggarty, Luke, Kaneshiro, Rosario, Noll, Roger, Shirley, Mary, ...
We construct comprehensive and consistent datasets on telecommunications and electricity regulations in developing countries through extensive surveys of regulators. The database of...
Wallsten, Scott, Clarke, George, Haggarty, Luke, Kaneshiro, Rosario, Noll, Roger, Shirley, Mary, ...
We construct comprehensive and consistent datasets on telecommunications and electricity regulations in developing countries through extensive surveys of regulators. The database of...
Mary Hallward-driemeier, Scott Wallsten, Lixin Colin Xu, Shuilin Wang, Anqing Shi, Yang Yumin, ...
Abstract: The importance of a country's "investment climate " for economic growth has recently received much attention. A contribution of this paper is to address the general...
Politician control, agency problems, and ownership reform : evidence from China (2002)
Xu, Lixin Colin, Zhu, Tim Tian, Lin, Yi-Min
Using data from a recent national survey of the ownership reform of state-owned enterprises in China, we study the effects of politician control and agency problems on the performance of the reformed...
Suggested running head: Political economy of telecom reforms.
Is Public Listing a Way out for State-Owned Enterprises? The Case of China (2001)
Xiaozu Wang, Lixin Colin Xu, Tian Zhu
Public listing is a key and unique reform measure for large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China. Using a panel data set that contains both pre- and postlisting financial and ownership information...
Empirical Effects of Performance Contracts: Evidence From China (2001)
Shirley, Mary M., Xu, Lixin Colin
Performance contracts (PCs)—contracts signed between the government and state enterprise managers—have been used widely in developing countries. China's experience with such contracts was one of...
Explaining the Changes of Income Distribution in China (2000)
Lixin Colin Xu, Xiaoqing Yu, Tao Zhang, Shaohua Chen
China has experienced one of the most remarkable increase in inequality over the last decade: the Gini coefficient increasing from 25.7 in 1984 to 37.8 in 1992. Using the recent developments in the...
Corruption, income distribution, and growth (2000)
Hongyi Li, Lixin Colin Xu, Heng-fu Zou
Abstract. This paper uses an encompassing framework developed by Murphy et al. (1991, 1993) to study corruption and how it affects income distribution and growth. We find that (1) corruption affects...
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Economics, June 1996.
How China's government and state enterprises partitioned property and control rights
In 1980, China's government owned and controlled its state enterprises, which were managed (inefficiently) by bureaucrats. During the 1980s, the government experimented with decentralizing state...
The productivity effects of decentralized reforms - an analysis of the Chinese industrial reforms
The empirical literature on the effects of ownership has not distinguished between the effects of ownership and the effects of control. It has also generally ignored the dynamic effects of various...
Agency Theory and Executive Compensation: The Case of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises
Taye Mengistae, Lixin Colin Xu
This article examines the extent to which agency theory may explain chief executive officer (CEO) compensation in Chinese state-owned enterprises during the 1980s. We find support for the agency...
Ownership, investment climate and firm performance
Mary Hallward-Driemeier, Scott Wallsten, Lixin Colin Xu
The importance of a country's 'investment climate' for economic growth has recently received much attention. In this paper we use a new survey of 1,500 Chinese enterprises in five cities to measure...
Scott Wallsten, George Clarke, Luke Haggarty, Rosario Kaneshiro, Roger Noll, Mary Shirley, ...
We construct comprehensive and consistent datasets on telecommunications and electricity regulations in developing countries through extensive surveys of regulators. The database of...
Formal finance and trade credit during China's transition
Cull, Robert, Lixin Colin Xu, Tian Zhu
Using a large panel dataset of Chinese industrial firms, the authors examine the determinants of access to loans from formal financial intermediaries and extension of trade credit. Poorly performing...
Local elections and consumption insurance : evidence from Chinese villages
Li Gan, Lixin Colin Xu, Yang Yao
While the literature on consumption insurance is growing fast, little research has been conducted on how rural consumption insurance is affected by democracy. In this paper the authors examine how...
Fan, Joseph P. H., Morck, Randall, Lixin Colin Xu, Yeung, Bernard
China is now the world's largest destination of foreign direct investment (FDI), despite assessments highlighting its institutional deficiencies. But this FDI inflow corresponds closely to predicted...
Institutions and Foreign Investment: China versus the World
Randall Morck, Lixin Colin Xu, Bernard Yeung
Weak institutions ought to deter foreign direction investment (FDI), and mass media stories highlight China's institutional deficiencies, yet China is now one of the world's largest FDI destinations....
Understanding China's capital productivity and flow
The evidence from China (and India) suggests that regional variations in FDI inflow and marginal productivity of capital can readily be explained by some of the usual and un-usual suspects: tax...
The empirical effects of performance contracts: evidence from China
Performance contracts are widely used to reform state-owned enterprises. By June 1994, there were 565 such contracts in 32 developing countries, used prinicipally to reform large utilities and other...
Surveying surveys and questioning questions - learning from World Bank experience
Recanatini, Francesca, Wallsten, Scott J., Lixin Colin Xu
The World Bank has increasingly focused on firm-level surveys to build the data foundation needed for accurate policy analysis in developing and transition economies. The authors take stock of some...
Alcazar, Lorena, Lixin Colin Xu, Zuluaga, Ana Maria
The main reason Lima failed to implement a concession was geographical: the scarcity of water sources meant high marginal costs, partly for pumping water from deep wells and building adequate storage...
Ownership, competition, and corruption : bribe takers versus bribe payers
Clarke, George R. G., Lixin Colin Xu
Over the past few years, many studies have looked at the macroeconomic, cultural, and institutional determinants of corruption. This study complements these cross-country studies by focusing on...
Finance and income inequality : test of alternative theories
Clarke, George, Xu, Lixin Colin, Zou, Heng-fu
Although theoretical models make distinct predictions about the relationship between financial sector development and income inequality, little empirical research has been conducted to compare their...
The investment climate and the firm : firm-level evidence from China
Hallward-Driemeier, Mary, Wallsten, Scott, Lixin Colin Xu
The importance of a country's"investment climate"for economic growth has recently received much attention. The authors address the general lack of appropriate data for measuring the investment...
Wallsten, Scott, Clarke, George, Haggarty, Luke, Kaneshiro, Rosario, Noll, Roger, Shirley, Mary, ...
Infrastructure industries-including telecommunications, electricity, water, and gas-underwent massive structural changes in the 1990s. During that decade, hundreds of privatization transactions...
Ownership, investment climate and firm performance
Mary Hallward-Driemeier, Scott Wallsten, Lixin Colin Xu
The importance of a country's 'investment climate' for economic growth has recently received much attention. In this paper we use a new survey of 1,500 Chinese enterprises in five cities to measure...
Politician control, agency problems and ownership reform
Lixin Colin Xu, Tian Zhu, Yi-min Lin
Using data from a recent national survey on the ownership reform of state-owned enterprises in China, we study the effects of reducing politician control and agency problems on a number of reform...
State-owned enterprises going public "The case of China"
Xiaozu Wang, Lixin Colin Xu, Tian Zhu
Public listing is a key reform measure for large state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China. We find evidence that public listing lowers state ownership significantly, lessens firms' reliance on debt...
Xiao-Yuan Dong, Lixin Colin Xu
Around the turn of the century, China experienced perhaps the largest labour restructuring program in the world. This paper uses a new dataset of Chinese industrial enterprises to examine what leads...
Corruption, Income Distribution, and Growth
Hongyi Li, Lixin Colin Xu, Heng-fu Zou
This paper uses an encompassing framework developed by Murphy et al. (1991, 1993) to study corruption and how it affects income distribution and growth. We find that (1) corruption affects income...
Are There Returns To The Wages Of Young Men From Working While In School?
V. Joseph Hotz, Lixin Colin Xu, Marta Tienda, Avner Ahituv
This paper examines the effects of work experience acquired while youth were in high school (and college) on young men's wage rates. Previous studies have found sizeable and persistent rates of...
Empirical Effects of Performance Contracts: Evidence from China.
Shirley, Mary M, Xu, Lixin Colin
Performance contracts (PCs)--contracts signed between the government and state enterprise managers--have been used widely in developing countries. China's experience with such contracts was one of...
Shirley, Mary M, Xu, Lixin Colin
This article analyzes the experience with performance contracts between developing country governments and the managers of their state owned enterprises. It identifies how problems of information...
Corporate Performance in the East Asian Financial Crisis.
Claessens, Stijn, Djankov, Simeon, Xu, Lixin Colin
The sharp decline in the once-stellar performance of East Asian corporations following the 1997 financial crisis has sparked an intense debate. Some observers argue that external shocks, including a...
Finance and Income Inequality: What Do the Data Tell Us?
Although there are distinct conjectures about the relationship between finance and income inequality, little empirical research compares their explanatory power. We examine the relationship between...
Xiao-Yuan Dong, Lixin Colin Xu
Around the turn of the century, China experienced perhaps the largest labour restructuring program in the world. This paper uses a new dataset of Chinese industrial enterprises to examine what leads...
Hongbin Cai, Hanming Fang, Lixin Colin Xu
Entertainment and Travel Costs (ETC) is a standard expenditure item for Chinese firms with an annual amount equal to about 20 percent of total wage bills. We use this objective accounting measure as...
Health Shocks, Village Elections, and Long-Term Income: Evidence from Rural China
Li Gan, Lixin Colin Xu, Yang Yao
Using a sample of households in 48 Chinese villages for the period 1986-2002, this paper studies the dynamic effects of major health shocks on household income and the role played by village...
The Impact of Privatization and Competition in the Telecommunications Sector around the World
Using a comprehensive country-level panel data set covering the period from 1990 to 2001, we investigate the impact of privatization and competition in the telecommunications sector around the world....
Agency Theory and Executive Compensation: The Case of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises
Taye Mengistae, Lixin Colin Xu
This article examines the extent to which agency theory may explain chief executive officer (CEO) compensation in Chinese state-owned enterprises during the 1980s. We find support for the agency...
Understanding China's capital productivity and flow
The evidence from China (and India) suggests that regional variations in FDI inflow and marginal productivity of capital can readily be explained by some of the usual and un-usual suspects: tax...
Institutions and Foreign Direct Investment: China versus the Rest of the World
Fan, Joseph P.H., Morck, Randall, Xu, Lixin Colin, Yeung, Bernard
Summary Weak institutions impede foreign direction investment (FDI), yet China attracts massive FDI despite global media spotlighting its institutional infirmities. Standard institutional quality...
Formal finance and trade credit during China's transition
Cull, Robert, Xu, Lixin Colin, Zhu, Tian
Using a large panel dataset of Chinese industrial firms, we find that poorly performing SOEs were more likely to redistribute credit to firms with less privileged access to loans via trade credit....
Labor restructuring in China: Toward a functioning labor market
Dong, Xiao-yuan, Xu, Lixin Colin
This paper examines the patterns and determinants of the labor restructuring process in China using two large firm-level datasets for the period between 1998 and 2002. We find that the public sector...