The 7th Academic Luncheon of the Digital Technology and Finance

Abstract:
Using a reform of state inspection of land (SIL) in China, this study explores the externalities of unleashing the local government's distortion on local land price with a difference-in-differences design. We present strong evidence that SIL leads substantial reduction of the price distortion in industrial land transactions, which results in an additional 50.0% increase of local land price and significantly improving the productivity of local industrial firms. Two plausible mechanisms are increased market competition and reduction of resource misallocation. By showing the negative externalities of the helping hand of local government, our findings suggest that market-oriented land prices can effectively select the high-productive entrants and impeding the investment of low-productive incumbents.

Speaker Introduction:
Ya’nan Wang is an associate professor at the School of Finance, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law; Ph.D. in Finance, School of Economics, Fudan University; and doctoral student jointly trained by WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany. Her main research areas are Corporate Finance, Contract Theory and Behavioral Finance. Her research results have been published in important domestic journals such as Economic Research Journal, and Journal of Financial Research, as well as Journal of Corporate Finance, China Economic Review, Energy Economics, Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Economic Modelling, Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Finance Research Letters and other SSCI journals.