Essays on the Role of Knowledge in Recent Chinese Development

Chapter 1: Earlier studies have consistently found evidence for productivity externalities of FDI through backward linkages. However, most studies do not use direct measures of backward linkages, nor do they further investigate what exactly generates these productivity externalities. Using a unique dataset from the Chinese automotive industry, which provides direct supply linkage measures, this study shows that compared with suppliers that only sell to domestic brands, the total factor productivity premium is about 16.7 percent for auto parts suppliers that sell to at least one foreign brand. Employing difference-in-differences estimation, a causal link from backward linkages to the suppliers\u27 productivity growth is also established. Specifically, auto parts suppliers\u27 productivity grows by 25.5 percent in the first year after formal supply relationships are forged with foreign joint venture automakers, and productivity continues to grow at least over the next two years. The case study further identifies knowledge transfer from joint venture automakers as an important source of productivity gains in local suppliers. It also offers three caveats that need to be taken into account when interpreting the observed productivity externalities in the econometric analyses. Chapter 2: Intellectual property piracy is widely believed, by authorities in both U.S. industry and government, to be rampant in China. Because we lack evidence on the rate at which unpaid consumption displaces paid consumption, we know little about the size of the effect of pirate consumption on the volume of paid consumption. We provide direct evidence on both the volume of unpaid consumption and the rate of sales displacement for movies in China using two surveys administered in late 2008 and mid-2009. First, using a survey of Chinese college students\u27 movie consumption and an empirical approach parallel to a similar recent study of U.S. college students, we find that three quarters of movie consumption is unpaid and that each instance of unpaid consumption displaces 0.14 paid consumption instances. Second, a survey of online Chinese consumers reveals similar patterns of paid and unpaid movie consumption but a displacement rate of roughly zero. We speculate on the small displacement rate finding relative to most of the piracy literature

Holographic Renyi entropies from hyperbolic black holes with scalar hair

The Renyi entropies as a generalization of the entanglement entropy imply much more information. We analytically calculate the Renyi entropies (with a spherical entangling surface) by means of a class of neutral hyperbolic black holes with scalar hair as a one-parameter generalization of the MTZ black hole. The zeroth-order and third-order phase transitions of black holes lead to discontinuity of the first and second derivatives of the Renyi entropies, respectively. From the Renyi entropies which are analytic at $n=\infty$, we can express the entanglement spectrum as an infinite sum in terms of the Bell polynomial. We show that the analytic treatment is in agreement with numerical calculations for the low-lying entanglement spectrum in a wide range of parameters.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figure

Comparative Study on Engineering Education in China and USA

The project, Comparative Study on Engineering Education in China and USA, studied the industrial need of professionals and engineering education in China and USA respectively in BJTU and WPI. The study evaluated the industrial need and the current engineering education practice including curriculums and methods of assessment. Based on the data analysis, we provided constructive perspectives on the changes of engineering education

Inferring Social Status and Rich Club Effects in Enterprise Communication Networks

Social status, defined as the relative rank or position that an individual holds in a social hierarchy, is known to be among the most important motivating forces in social behaviors. In this paper, we consider the notion of status from the perspective of a position or title held by a person in an enterprise. We study the intersection of social status and social networks in an enterprise. We study whether enterprise communication logs can help reveal how social interactions and individual status manifest themselves in social networks. To that end, we use two enterprise datasets with three communication channels --- voice call, short message, and email --- to demonstrate the social-behavioral differences among individuals with different status. We have several interesting findings and based on these findings we also develop a model to predict social status. On the individual level, high-status individuals are more likely to be spanned as structural holes by linking to people in parts of the enterprise networks that are otherwise not well connected to one another. On the community level, the principle of homophily, social balance and clique theory generally indicate a "rich club" maintained by high-status individuals, in the sense that this community is much more connected, balanced and dense. Our model can predict social status of individuals with 93% accuracy.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Returnee Entrepreneurs and the Performance Implications of Political and Business Relationships under Institutional Uncertainty

Acknowledgements We would like to thank the reviewers, the guest editor Bradley Barnes, and the editor in chief Naveen Donthu for the constructive comments. We are grateful with the financial support from the Broman Foundation for Research and Entrepreneurship, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71772165), and the National Key Project of Philosophy and Social Science from Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (Grant No. 17JZD018).Peer reviewedPostprin

Impact of dietary manganese on intestinal barrier and inflammatory response in broilers challenged with Salmonella Typhimurium

Growing concern for public health and food safety has prompted a special interest in developing nutritional strategies for removing waterborne and foodborne pathogens, including Salmonella. Strong links between manganese (Mn) and intestinal barrier or immune function hint that dietary Mn supplementation is likely to be a promising approach to limit the loads of pathogens in broilers. Here, we provide evidence that Salmonella Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium, 4 × 108 CFUs) challenge-induced intestinal injury along with systemic Mn redistribution in broilers. Further examining of the effect of dietary Mn treatments (a basal diet plus additional 0, 40, or 100 mg Mn/kg for corresponding to Mn-deficient, control, or Mn-surfeit diet, respectively) on intestinal barrier and inflammation status of broilers infected with S. Typhimurium revealed that birds fed the control and Mn-surfeit diets exhibited improved intestinal tight junctions and microbiota composition. Even without Salmonella infection, dietary Mn deficiency alone increased intestinal permeability by impairing intestinal tight junctions. In addition, when fed the control and Mn-surfeit diets, birds showed decreased Salmonella burdens in cecal content and spleen, with a concomitant increase in inflammatory cytokine levels in spleen. Furthermore, the dietary Mn-supplementation-mediated induction of cytokine production was probably associated with the nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB)/hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) pathway, as judged by the enhanced manganese superoxide dismutase activity and the increased H2O2 level in mitochondria, together with the increased mRNA level of NF-κB in spleen. Ingenuity-pathway analysis indicated that acute-phase response pathways, T helper type 1 pathway, and dendritic cell maturation were significantly activated by the dietary Mn supplementation. Our data suggest that dietary Mn supplementation could enhance intestinal barrier and splenic inflammatory response to fight against Salmonella infection in broilers