威尼斯欢乐娱人城·首页-加拿大华人教授协会2020年学术交流：经管分会场
2020 HUST-ACCP Seminar on Business and Management
Time：9:30AM – 11:30 AM, December 11, 2020 (Beijing time)
Location: Tencent Meeting Room: 507 151 948, Password 1211
Moderator: Dr. Yongqiang Gao
1) 9: 30-10:30 “Firm Innovation under Import Competition from Low-Wage Countries”
Dr. Runjuan Liu, Professor, Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta
Abstract: In recent years, manufacturing firms in the United States have faced increasing import competition from low-wage countries, especially China. Does this competition hurt or help innovation by firms? This paper studies the effect of the surge in imports from China on innovation in the US manufacturing sector. We combine patent, firm, and trade data during 1990-2010 for US publicly-listed firms in the Compustat dataset. We find consistent evidence that Chinese import competition had an inverted-U effect on firm innovation, as measured by patent counts and citation-weighted patents. This inverted-U relation persists when we instrument import competition in the US by using Chinese import penetration in the United Kingdom.
2) 10:30-11:30 “Willingness to Pay for Residing in Food Deserts and Food Swamps: Are People Rational?”
Dr. Feng Qiu, Associate Professor, Department of Resource Economics & Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta
Abstract: In the food environment literature, the broadest areas of research include identifying vulnerable dietary environments and studying how these environments affect eating behaviors and health. So far, there is no research on people’s willingness to pay for improving food environments. Therefore, the goal of this study is to estimate willingness to pay for different types of food environments by using hedonic pricing models. Our empirical application applies to the Canadian city of Edmonton. The results show that people are willing to pay premiums to live in neighborhoods with excess access to fast-food restaurants and convenience stores (i.e., food swamps) and neighborhoods that are distant from supermarkets and grocery stores (i.e., food deserts). Why do rational people prefer to live in disadvantaged environments? The seemingly counterintuitive result has its rationality. The positive willingness to pay may reflect people’s preference for convenience and time-saving in modern society. The results also indicate that the unaffordability of healthy food in low-income households may be a deeper reason for the choice of food swamps. To improve the dietary environment for vulnerable groups, we need tailored policy interventions.
