0000000000203059

AUTHOR

Shaomin Li

Corruption, regime type, and economic growth

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An Institutional Perspective on Religious Freedom and Economic Growth

AbstractThe increase in religion-related conflicts around the world emphasizes the urgent need for a better understanding of the role of religion and religious freedom on socio-economic development, both theoretically and empirically. While studies on the role of religion on economic development have existed as early as Weber (1905), there is a dearth of studies on the effect of religious freedom on economic growth, and the existing studies overlook possible negative impacts on economies by unrestricted religious freedom. Drawing on institutional theory, we propose that different types of religious restrictions can exert either positive or negative effects on economic growth. We test our pr…

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China’s intellectual property rights provocation: A political economy view

It is well recognized that intellectual property rights (IPR) violations are at the heart of the economic conflict with China. Little agreement, however, exists about the origin and solutions for this provocation. Broadly speaking, two prescriptions have been proposed: the natural evolutionary and the rule of law views. While both have merits and add to our understanding, they do not go far enough to address the more fundamental IPR policy issue: China has benefited from a rule of law overseas and a rule through law at home, manufacturing unfair advantage to its firms, many of which are owned and/or influenced by the government. While recognizing China’s recent effort in improving IPR prote…

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Regime Type and COVID-19 Response

From late 2019 to the first half of 2020, the world has witnessed the epic spread and destruction of the novel coronavirus which was discovered in Wuhan, China. The huge number of infections and deaths caused by the virus, the collapse of the healthcare system and the economic consequences have few modern equivalents. While governments of all countries are responding to the pandemic, a heated debate rages about which political system, democracy versus authoritarian, is better positioned to respond to the pandemic. While the worldwide effort to contain the virus continues, we offer a preliminary comparison between democracies and authoritarian regimes in their responses to COVID-19, and pol…

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Greenfield or M&A? An institutional and learning perspective on the establishment mode choice of Chinese outward investments

Abstract We develop and test a model of Chinese greenfield investments using institutional and learning theories. Both the host country institutional context and the firm's international characteristics affect the establishment mode. Using 152 Chinese emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) with 401 subsidiaries distributed in 26 countries from 2003 to 2013, we build a database of 284 pairs of host country/Chinese firms to test two hypotheses. We find that, first, governance environment affects the establishment mode: greenfield investments are preferred over acquisitions in relation-based host markets, and M&As are preferred in rule-based countries. Second, the depth of Chinese EMNEs' inter…

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