Associate Professor Gecheng Yuan, a researcher of the base, has published a collaborative paper titled "Data-driven hiring in firms: Evidence from the launch of Chinese public data platforms" in Finance Research Letters.

Abstract:To understand the effects of improved public data accessibility on firms’hiring behavior, this paper examines the employment effects of public data platforms in China. Using a difference-in-differences approach, the impact of city-level public data access on firms’hiring decisions is estimated. Findings indicate that firms significantly increase their workforce once they achieve greater accessibility to public data, ascribed to two underlying mechanisms: reduced uncertainty about the business environment, which lowers firms’perceived risks and encourages hiring, and enhanced innovation capacity, which stimulates new product development and expands labor demand. Younger firms show pronounced employment effects, whereas wholesale and retail firms experience negative effects.

Keywords: Public data; Firm-level hiring; Information frictions; Innovation

Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2025.108282

Author profile

Gecheng Yuan,PhD in Economics from Wuhan University. She joined the School of Finance, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in 2019. She currently serves as Deputy Secretary of the First Party Branch of the Investment Department and Deputy Director of the Investment Economics Teaching and Research Office. Her research fields include household finance, financial development, and corporate innovation. Her research has been published in journals such as China Industrial Economics, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, and Energy Policy. In 2022, she was awarded a General Project of the Hubei Social Science Fund and a Philosophy and Social Science Research Project of the Hubei Provincial Department of Education.