June 24–25, 2011
Organizers
- Gary S. Becker, University of Chicago
- James J. Heckman, University of Chicago
- Dali Yang, University of Chicago
- Zhong Zhao, Renmin University of China
Scholars from China, Europe, and the U.S. highlighted new research on marital patterns, intergenerational living arrangements, labor migration, the Internet economy, and other trends shaping life in China at this conference.
Gary S. Becker, chair of the Becker Friedman Institute and co-organizer of the conference, noted that this event was the “second installment” of a fruitful exchange that began during the opening of the University’s Beijing Center in September 2010. Xiangquan Zeng, Dean of School of Labor and Human Resources at Renmin University of China, pointed out that societal shifts in China like increasing divorce rates and workforce mobility are reducing the differences in the U.S. and Chinese labor markets. As those similarities grow, “there are benefits to sharing research on these issues,” he said.
Conference co-organizer Dali Yang, director of the Confucius Institute and founding faculty director of the University of Chicago Center in Beijing, pointed out future opportunities for ongoing Chicago-China collaboration. Uchicago’s National Opinion Research Center has long been home to the both the General Social Survey and the International Social Survey Program. China has conducted its own GSS survey for about a decade and initiatives at the University of Beijing and Renmin University are developing more data resources. “There is quite a bit of potential for data collection and sharing between us,” he said.
He cited developing plans for future symposia that would address important questions of methodology and questionnaire design, efficient and accurate data collection, and ways to engage the research community to ensure quality and validity. “I believe there is real potential for this series to generate exchanges that percolate throughout the sciences, hopefully not just in the economics area.”
Sponsors
- The Confucius Institute, University of Chicago
The Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics
The
School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China
University of Chicago Center in Beijing
Papers presented
“Good Samaritans, Rotten Parent Theorem, Old Age, and Investment in Human Capital: Some New Results”
- Gary Becker, University of Chicago
- View Slides (.pdf) » | Watch Video »
“Large Demographic Shocks and Small Changes in the Marriage Market”
- Loren Brandt, University of Toronto
- Paper (.pdf) » | View Slides (.pdf) » | Watch Video »
“Exploiting the Internet Data Explosion: Taobao and Ali-baba and More” Wei Chi, Tsinghua University
“Love and Money by Parental Match-Making: Evidence from Chinese Couples”
- L. Colin Xu, World Bank
- Paper (.pdf) » | View Slides (.pdf) » | Watch Video »
“Cognitive Skills, Non-Cognitive Skills, and the Employment and Wages of Young Adults in Rural China”
- Albert Park, Oxford University
- View Slides (.pdf) » | Watch Video »
“Prices and Market Transactions on the World's Largest Internet Platform:
Taobao.com 2010”
- Richard Freeman, Harvard University
- Watch Video »
“Living Arrangements of the Elderly in China: Evidence from CHARLS”
- Xiaoyan Lei, CCER, Beijing University
- View Slides (.pdf) » | Watch Video »
“The Political Determinants of Social Trust: An IV Approach Using Chinese Survey Data”
- Ran Tao, Renmin University, and Dali Yang, University of Chicago
- View Slides (.pdf) » | Watch Video »
“Measuring the Income-Distance Tradeoff for Rural-Urban Migrants in China”
- Junfu Zhang, Clark University
- Paper (.pdf) » | Watch Video »
