Doctoral Dissertation: Social Welfare Reform and Its Impact on Chinese Firms During Economic Transition

Ohio State University Research Foundation -Do Not Use, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation will use 1980-1999 panel survey data on 800 Chinese firms to investigate business responses to changes in the Chinese social welfare system (e.g., housing, medical care). These quantitative panel data will be supplemented by more qualitative in-depth interviews with managers in forty firms to inquire how decisions regarding welfare benefits were made. Hypotheses specify which types of firms are most likely to have reduced welfare spending (e.g., firms associated with local rather than the central government; managers not previously Communist Party members). It is also expected that firms, especially state owned firms, that reduced their welfare spending performed better financially as a result.