IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/wbecrv/v38y2024i4p708-740..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is There a Bright Side to the China Syndrome? Rising Export Opportunities and Life Satisfaction in China

Author

Listed:
  • Matthieu Crozet
  • Laura Hering
  • Sandra Poncet

Abstract

Export growth affects individuals through numerous and contradictory channels. In China, the development of exports has promoted economic development and income growth, but it has also disrupted social structures and work environments. This paper explores the overall effect of exports on perceived well-being by combining responses from a large longitudinal survey covering over 45,000 Chinese with a shift-share measure of local export opportunities. Results show that individuals’ perceived life satisfaction increases significantly in prefectures that benefited from greater export opportunities, despite a negative effect on self-reported health. The positive well-being gains go beyond a simple income effect. These non-monetary gains are related to the individuals’ professional life: export-related well-being gains are stronger for working-age individuals (especially men and low-skilled workers), are largest for workers in the manufacturing sector (which produces the vast majority of China’s exports), and are found when the satisfaction indicator focuses on work but not on other aspects of daily life.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthieu Crozet & Laura Hering & Sandra Poncet, 2024. "Is There a Bright Side to the China Syndrome? Rising Export Opportunities and Life Satisfaction in China," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 38(4), pages 708-740.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:wbecrv:v:38:y:2024:i:4:p:708-740.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/wber/lhae006
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:wbecrv:v:38:y:2024:i:4:p:708-740.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wrldbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.