题 目：Winter is coming: Early-Life Experiences and Politicians' Decisions

报告人：梁平汉  教授  中山大学政治与公共事务管理学院

主持人：梁友莎  讲师  浙江大学经济学院

时 间：2018年5月25日（周五）  14:00―15:30

地 点：浙江大学玉泉校区经济学院418室  

Abstract

The preferences of local officials matter in delivering public services. This paper focuses on the effect of County Party Secretaries’ (CPS) early-life experiences of China’s Great Famine during 1959-61 on the fiscal expenditure and revenue during their tenure of office.  We combine the so-far most complete biographic information of 4,303 CPS who have served in 1,937 counties during 1993-2007, the county-level fiscal expenditure, revenue and socioeconomic outcomes, and 1% 1990 Population Census. The results indicate that if the CPS experienced a severer famine which decreased the agricultural population by 10% during their early childhood, they will spend 5.9% more on agriculture, 10.2% more on social security, and 25.8% more on rural production during their tenure of office, controlling for the total fiscal expenditure and other relevant socioeconomic variables. Second, a 10% severer famine experienced during early childhood of CPS decreases agricultural tax by 38.8% and personal income tax by 7.2%. Hence, the famine experience during childhood of CPS shifts the fiscal policy in favor of agriculture, rural development and social security. Moreover, this change in preference has further impacts on local development. It leads to 1.7% increase in food production, 2.9% increase in values added in agriculture, 1.3% increase in employment in agriculture and 1.7% more primary and middle school students. To examine the mechanism of the famine effect, we also exploit household survey data and restrict the sample only to communist party members working in the government. We show that famine experience changes their relevant attitudes significantly.

报告人简介：

梁平汉，巴塞罗那自治大学经济学博士，中山大学政治与公共事务管理学院教授，博士生导师，中国公共管理研究中心研究员。研究领域为博弈论，政治经济学，行为和实验经济学，近五年来在Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Comparative Economics, Review of Economic Design, 《经济研究》、《管理世界》、《经济学季刊》、《世界经济》、《中国工业经济》等国内外一流学术期刊发表论文20余篇，曾获霍英东基金会高等院校优秀青年教师奖等表彰

CRPE秘书处
2018-5-22