A research stream known as prospect theory describes how decision biases lead to results that differ from those predicted by classical utility theory (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979). Prospect theory hypothesizes that individuals will experience potential losses more intensely than potential gains, and will be more risk‐seeking in loss situations, while more risk‐avoiding in gain situations. This study includes 948 participants from the PRC and 318 students from the USA. All of our attempts to replicate these findings in the Peoples' Republic of China have revealed a different pattern. Chinese subjects consistently demonstrated risk‐seeking preferences, both in gain and loss situations.
Abstract What impacts do typhoons have on local labor markets? Few empirical researches have been conducted in China. By collecting the data of 23 quarters (3-month intervals) of Guangdong province from 2009 to 2014 and using the generalized method of moments (GMM), this paper analyzes the impacts of typhoons on labor markets from the perspectives of general effect, regional effect, intensity effect, and time effect. In addition, a comparative analysis is carried out between this study and similar studies of developed countries. The results show that 1) massive typhoons resulted in a 12.5% increase in employment but did not have a significant impact on Guangdong's per capita employee remuneration, and 2) there are periodic features to typhoons' impacts on employment. Typhoons influence employment in a four-quarter cycle. In the quarter affected by a typhoon, the first quarter, the number of employees increased by 17.4%. The quantity of labor employed in the subsequent two quarters shows no significant change. In the last quarter, the number of employed people decreases by 17.0%, which returns to predisaster levels. Additionally, 3) the results of this study are different from those of studies involving developed countries, which may be caused by the distinctiveness of China's labor market. Finally, conclusions and corresponding suggestions are presented.
AbstractSince December 2019, the COVID‐19 epidemic has been spreading continuously in China and many countries in the world, causing widespread concern among the whole society. To cope with the epidemic disaster, most provinces and cities in China have adopted prevention and control measures such as home isolation, blocking transportation, and extending the Spring Festival holiday, which has caused a serious impact on China's output of various sectors, international trade, and labor employment, ultimately generating great losses to the Chinese economic system in 2020. But how big is the loss? How can we assess this for a country? At present, there are few analyses based on quantitative models to answer these important questions. In the following, we describe a quantitative‐based approach of assessing the potential impact of the COVID‐19 epidemic on the economic system and the sectors taking China as the base case. The proposed approach can provide timely data and quantitative tools to support the complex decision‐making process that government agencies (and the private sector) need to manage to respond to this tragic epidemic and maintain stable economic development. Based on the available data, this article proposes a hypothetical scenario and then adopts the Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to calculate the comprehensive economic losses of the epidemic from the aspects of the direct shock on the output of seriously affected sectors, international trade, and labor force. The empirical results show that assuming a GDP growth rate of 4–8% in the absence of COVID‐19, GDP growth in 2020 would be ‐8.77 to ‐12.77% after the COVID‐19. Companies and activities associated with transportation and service sectors are among the most impacted, and companies and supply chains related to the manufacturing subsector lead the economic losses. Finally, according to the calculation results, the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions are put forward: disaster recovery for key sectors such as the labor force, transportation sector, and service sectors should be enhanced; disaster emergency rescue work in highly sensitive sectors should be carried out; in the long run, precise measures to strengthen the refined management of disaster risk with big data resources and means should be taken.
AbstractTo investigate the general principle of the impact of tropical cyclones on employment, explore the reason for the divergence among existing research conclusions, and put forward some suggestions for post-disaster reconstruction, this paper employs meta-regression analysis to study the impacts of tropical cyclones on the quantity of labor employed and employee remuneration from four aspects: industry dimension, time dimension, income dimension, and tropical cyclone intensity. The results are as follows: 1) Tropical cyclones create an impact on the intensity of changes in employment remuneration in the primary industry, and the impact in the secondary industry is greater than that in the tertiary industry. 2) In the short term, the impact of tropical cyclones on employment is negative and the impact intensity is strong, whereas in the medium and long terms, the impact is positive and the intensity of impact decreases. 3) Although tropical cyclones increase the quantity of labor employed from low-income groups, they decrease their employment remuneration. In addition, the impact of disasters on the number of employed high-income groups is relatively small compared to that of low-income groups. 4) A higher category of tropical cyclone results in a greater positive impact on the employment of labor force. Accordingly, the following suggestions are made: 1) The government should issue corresponding policies to provide "temporary disaster subsidies" for disaster-stricken low-income groups. 2) Insurance companies should introduce commercial insurance concerning "post-disaster employment" for employers to purchase before any disaster occurs so as to offer disaster-stricken employees compensation.
