Date & Time：Nov. 20, 2019 14:00 - 15:30
Venue：SEM501 Meeting Room
Speaker：Zhi Wang （Fudan University）
Abstract：
We empirically estimate a model of Chinese college admissions to understand the factors that drive the unequal geographical distribution of elite college places in China. We find that elite Chinese universities have remarkably similar preferences. But, contrary to popular beliefs, there is little evidence that elite Chinese universities favor home-province applicants. Rather, they consistently prefer students from richer provinces even though college tuition fees in China are fixed by the government at a low level and play little role in screening students. One possibility is that universities prefer students with higher ability and richer provinces spend more on pre-college education.
Speaker Biography：
Zhi Wang received her PhD in Economics from Brown University in 2013 and joined the School of Economics at Fudan University shortly afterwards as an assistant professor. Her research focuses on the applications of microeconomics in the field of Urban Economics. Her research projects investigate: the relationship between the location of labor-force entry and wage growth; the determinants and effects of the spatial pattern of urban land development; the effects and implementation of land use regulations; the effects of environmental regulations; the effects of school boundaries in urban China; the determinants of the spatial distribution of college admissions in China; and the effects of industrial land policies. Her papers have been published or forthcoming at Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and Journal of Housing Economics.
