Fei Peng | University of Birmingham (original) (raw)

Books by Fei Peng

Papers by Fei Peng

Sustainability

This paper investigates the relationship between China’s trade agreements (TAs) and partner count... more This paper investigates the relationship between China’s trade agreements (TAs) and partner countries’ upgrade in global value chains (GVCs). We focus on the experience of China and relate China’s TAs with one belt and one road (OBOR) initiative. A structural equation model (SEM) is applied on a dataset including 216 countries and regions to identify the direct and indirect effects of China’s TAs and OBOR initiative on its export, outwards foreign direct investment (OFDI) and partner economy’ GVCs upgrade over the period 2010–2015. We find that China’s TA partner countries are more likely to be included in the OBOR initiative than those non-TA partner countries. The positive effects of China’s TAs and OBOR initiative on China’s export, outwards foreign direct investment (OFDI) and partner countries’ upgrade in GVCs differ across country groups at the different locations of GVCs. Both vertical and horizontal spillover effects exist in China’s TAs. Therefore, the partner countries at ...

Sustainability

This paper investigates the effect of the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative on China’s outward ... more This paper investigates the effect of the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative on China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) using a dataset of all host countries for the period of 2010–2015. The employed econometric technique combines a difference-in-differences estimator with matching techniques. The results show that China’s OFDI in OBOR countries is about 40% higher than in non-OBOR countries. After the initiative, the OFDI from China increases by 46.2% in OBOR countries. However, after controlling for the heterogeneity across OBOR and non-OBOR countries using the matching approach, the significance of the increasing effect caused by the OBOR initiative disappears. We also find the OBOR initiative diminishes the resource-seeking motivation and improves the market-seeking motivation of China’s OFDI. Our results cast doubts on the infrastructure-led and institution-based strategy of the OBOR initiative, but support the boosting effect of the OBOR initiative on institutional c...

Economic Modelling

Using panel data from nine European countries over the period 1970 to 2007, we examine the impact... more Using panel data from nine European countries over the period 1970 to 2007, we examine the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on the demand for older workers (aged 50 and over). We find evidence of a decrease in demand for older workers in the 1970s and 1980s. It can be argued that the impact of ICT on demand for older workers is skill-biased. However, the skill-biased demand for older workers is mainly reflected in the skill-biased changes in employment shares rather than relative wages. There is some evidence of a gradual deskilling of older workers. We find that labour market institutions such as the national minimum wage, social pacts on wage issues and union density mostly benefit skilled older workers, while coordination of wage setting, extension of collective agreements, social pacts on pensions and centralisation of wage bargaining can alleviate the adverse effects of skill-biased technological change.

This paper applies the growth accounting model to Chinese economy at region and province levels f... more This paper applies the growth accounting model to Chinese economy at region and province levels from 1978 to 2009. We measure the components in the growth accounting model such as capital services, labour inputs and Total Factor Productivity (TFP) using various data sources. The economic growth has been decomposed into the contribution of physical capital, labour inputs, labour composition index (LCI) and TFP. We find that Chinese economic growth was mainly pushed by the growth of physical capital, especially in the fastest growing Coastal region. Labour inputs and TFP growth contribute more in the Interior and West regions. Moreover, the contribution shares of physical capital in labour productivity have been declining for the Coastal region, as the TFP contributions have been increasing over the same period. Our results show that the human capital formation from technological and institutional shifts is becoming more and more important in the Coastal region.

This paper challenges the economic constraints associated with the so-called postindustrial trile... more This paper challenges the economic constraints associated with the so-called postindustrial trilemma. Following Iversen's and Wren's seminal 1998 paper, it has been widely accepted that differential industry-level productivity increases rule out a solidaristic structure of wages, due to the fact that private services will become priced out of the market. We challenge this assumption both theoretically and empirically. Theoretically, we highlight the questionable assumptions within William Baumol's 1967 economic model that underpins the trilemma, contrasting it with alternative neoclassical theory and 'power theories of industries'. Building upon this, we empirically demonstrate that productivity increases have a very small effect upon industry wages. Much more important is the pricing power of an industry, which results from the complex interaction of firms with their physical and institutional environment. Contrary to the trilemma, this suggests that wage increases are not primarily constrained by sectoral productivity increases. More equal paying societies will certainly have a different structure of relative prices for goods and services to unequal ones. Whether they have sufficient demand to ensure high levels of employment in private services depends upon multiple factors that are not fixed but vary by place and over time. We argue that distributional choices over earnings continue to be open to social and political influence with much less rigid economic constraints than have perhaps been assumed.

birmingham.ac.uk

This paper compares the cyclical behaviour of male real wages in Germany and the UK using the Ger... more This paper compares the cyclical behaviour of male real wages in Germany and the UK using the German Socio-Economic Panel 1984-2009 and the British Household Panel Survey 1991-2009. We distinguish between job stayers (remaining in the same job), and within-and between-company job movers. Stayers are the large majority in both countries. Using changes in the unemployment rate as the cyclical measure, we find real wages of stayers in both private and public sector in West Germany–but only private ...

This paper considers evidence on the impact of ICT on demand for different types of workers, focu... more This paper considers evidence on the impact of ICT on demand for different types of workers, focusing in particular on the age dimension. It first examines data from EUKLEMS using regressions standard in the literature and suggests ICT may have adversely affected older workers, in particular high skilled males aged 50 and over. The paper then uses data from the EU Labour Force Survey, linked to EUKLEMS, to examine whether the observed differences by worker type could be due to variations in on the job training. It shows that ...

This paper employs industry data, derived from linking the EU LFS to productivity accounts from E... more This paper employs industry data, derived from linking the EU LFS to productivity accounts from EU KLEMS, to examine workforce training and productivity in European Union original members states. Training activities are modelled as intangible investments by firms and cumulated to stocks so their impact can be evaluated within a production function framework, including links to the use of information and communications technology (ICT). The results suggest significantly positive effects of training on productivity, both direct and interacted with ICT, with different impacts in services than in production industries. These results are robust to the use of instrumental variables methods, both lagged instruments and a set of variables that capture features of the operation of labour markets.

This paper investigates the impact of training and education on productivity, in particular linki... more This paper investigates the impact of training and education on productivity, in particular linking to a literature that emphasizes the need to reorganise production following adoption of ICT. The paper examines training at the total economy level and variation across industries, focusing especially on manufacturing versus market service sectors. It also examines the characteristics of those who receive training and outlines the incentives that underlie this.

Firm’s proper acquisition size is still an unresolved question. The extant literatures mention li... more Firm’s proper acquisition size is still an unresolved question. The extant literatures mention little about the determinants of firm’s acquisition size at micro economic level. With recent available data of acquisitions in Chinese stock market (Shanghai and Shenzhen) during 2003-2008, we estimate the effect of institutional ownership on firms’ acquisition size controlling financial and governance characteristics. In an industry fixed effect model, firms’ acquisition size is significantly and positively associated with firm size, Tobin’s Q, leverage ratio, cash holing level and internal capital expenditure. Acquisition size is positively related to some governance characteristics of firms such as board size, independency of board and activity of board, but negatively related to the duality of chairman and CEO. However, annual dividend, management holding, intangible asset, ownership concentration and the identity of ownership seems unrelated to acquisition size. The monitoring effect...

对外经贸财会, 2000

Sustainability

Economic Modelling

birmingham.ac.uk

对外经贸财会, 2000

海南金融, 2003

摘要: 我国农村信用社的发展既受制于历史遗留问题, 又面临着市场扩大后信息不对称下的逆向选择和道德风险. 这是我国实行家庭联产承包责任制, 从而有效地解决了农业生产的劳动投入问题后, 深化改革所... more 摘要: 我国农村信用社的发展既受制于历史遗留问题, 又面临着市场扩大后信息不对称下的逆向选择和道德风险. 这是我国实行家庭联产承包责任制, 从而有效地解决了农业生产的劳动投入问题后, 深化改革所必然面临的更为复杂的资本投入问题. 对这个问题的解决有赖于金融体制的多元化, 以及在农村信用体制内的产权改革

This paper examines the effect of shifts in the relative supply and demand of skills on the skill... more This paper examines the effect of shifts in the relative supply and demand of skills on the skill premiums and wage inequality in the British labour market 1972-2002. We test the Katz and Murphy (1992) hypothesis that the changes of skill premiums can be explained by their relative supply shifts, given stable or steadily growing relative demand. Alternatively, Machin (2001) hypothesis holds if the changes of skill premiums can be explained by relative demand shifts, given stable or steadily growing relative supply. From co-variation of relative skill wages and relative labour supplies of skills, we reject the hypothesis that the relative labour demand for skill is stable over time for either males or females. By using detrended relative skill wages and supplies, we infer that the acceleration of relative demand for skills caused a positive association between relative skill wages and labour supplies for males in the 1980s and the 2000s, and for females after the 1970s. Hence, the st...

This paper analyses wage flexibility in Chinese labor market over the period 1989-2009. Labor res... more This paper analyses wage flexibility in Chinese labor market over the period 1989-2009. Labor restructuring and rural-urban migration have impact on wage flexibility in Chinese dual-track system. Workers with weak bargaining power have rigid wages over the inside-track business cycle proxied by the registered unemployment rates and suffer coordination failures. However, their wages are responsive to the outside-track business cycle proxied by the survey-based unemployment. Results from Heckman selection, dynamic spatial panel and non/semi-parametric models reconfirm a transition labor market with segmentation and monopsony and call for further reform aiming to flexible wages for all participants.

This chapter investigates the impact of training and education on productivity, in particular lin... more This chapter investigates the impact of training and education on productivity, in particular linking to a literature that emphasizes the need to reorganise production following adoption of ICT.
We examine impacts on productivity at the total economy level but also considers if the link between training and productivity varies across industries, focusing especially on manufacturing versus market service sectors. It also examines the characteristics of those who receive training and outlines the incentives that underlie this.
However, improvements in relative productivity performance may or may not translate into improved competitiveness as trends in relative productivity may be offset to some extent by trends in nominal input prices and/or market exchange rates. The report ends therefore with an analysis of unit labor costs comparing EU countries and China with the US.

We analyse real wage adjustment over the business cycle using panel data for Germany and Britain.... more We analyse real wage adjustment over the business cycle using panel data for Germany and Britain. Real wages being sensitive to unemployment means adverse shocks result in wage adjustments rather than unemployment. Germany has more centralised wage-setting institutions which might contribute to lower real wage sensitivity, and thus more unemployment

This paper considers evidence on the impact of ICT on demand for different types of workers, foc... more This paper considers evidence on the impact of ICT on demand for
different types of workers, focusing in particular on the age
dimension. It first examines data from EUKLEMS using regressions standard in the literature and suggests ICT may have adversely affected older workers, in particular high skilled males aged 50 and over. The paper then uses data from the EU Labour Force Survey, linked to EUKLEMS, to examine whether the observed differences by worker type could be due to variations in on the job training. It shows that training linked to ICT use can explain some of the wage variation and that reluctance by older men to undertake training has a role as well as lower offers of training by firms.

In this paper, we aim to analyze the links between labour market institutions and the skill (educ... more In this paper, we aim to analyze the links between labour market institutions and the skill (education) premium.