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English language requirement and educational inequality: Evidence from 16 million college applicants in China
English language requirement and educational inequality: Evidence from 16 million college applicants in China
This paper studies the unintended effect of English language requirement on educational inequality by investigating how the staggered rollout of English listening tests in China’s high-stakes National College Entrance Exam (NCEE) affected the rural–urban gap in college access. Leveraging administrative data covering the universe of NCEE participants between 1999 and 2003, we find that the introduction of English listening tests significantly lowered rural students’ exam score percentile ranks relative to their urban counterparts, resulting in a 30% increase in the rural–urban gap in college access. Our back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that, as a result of this policy change, more than 54,000 rural students lost college seats to their urban peers between 1999 and 2003, and another 11,000 rural students who elite colleges could have admitted ended up in non-elite colleges, causing them significant future income losses.

RegTech: Technology-driven compliance and its effects on profitability, operations, and market structure
RegTech: Technology-driven compliance and its effects on profitability, operations, and market structure
Compliance-driven investments in technology—or “RegTech”—are growing rapidly. To understand the effects on the financial sector, we study firms’ responses to new internal control requirements. Affected firms make significant investments in ERP and hardware. These expenditures then enable complementary investments that are leveraged for noncompliance purposes, leading to modest savings from avoided customer complaints and misconduct. IT budgets rise and profits fall, especially at small firms, and acquisition activity and market concentration increase. Our results illustrate how regulation can directly and indirectly affect technology adoption, which in turn affects noncompliance functions and market structure.

Automation Enables Specialization: Field Evidence
Automation Enables Specialization: Field Evidence
Becker and Murphy proposed that task specialization raises productivity but is limited by the costs of coordinating workers. We propose that automation enables workers to specialize without coordination costs. To the extent that the cost of effort exhibits increasing differences, workers increase effort in nonautomated tasks and productivity. The proposition is supported by a field experiment among supermarket cashiers. Conventionally, supermarket cashiers perform two tasks: scanning purchases and collecting payment. Cashiers exhibited increasing differences in the cost of effort: when they scanned faster, they took longer to collect payments. We rotated cashiers between the conventional job design and one in which they specialized in scanning. The new job design increased cashier productivity in scanning by more than 10%. The faster scanning was not due to customer sorting or cashier learning. The proposition is also validated by a survey of taxi drivers. Drivers who reported that difficulties in finding their way affected their driving were more likely to use map apps.

Casting a Light on Dark Venues
Casting a Light on Dark Venues
Increased trading in dark venues around earnings announcements offers advantages to businesses and markets that can allay regulators’ concerns
How to Predict Popularity
How to Predict Popularity
If the many functions of digital social media networks could be summed up in one word, it would likely be “sharing”. Through a myriad of apps and platforms, we share our thoughts, feelings, opinions, ideas, and more – with our friends and family, with our online social circles, with strangers, and even with companies.
Carry trade by Trucks
Carry trade by Trucks
New research shows that traders can bypass capital controls by transporting goods across borders by truck to reap currency carry rewards. We look at how they do it and what the consequences are
Learning to Coordinate in Firms’ Behaviours  – Dr. Jasmine Yu HAO
Learning to Coordinate in Firms’ Behaviours – Dr. Jasmine Yu HAO
While computer languages may sound alien to economics, I aim to showcase that good programming skills are conducive not limited to economic research, it can also open up endless career possibilities for you in the business world.

To Imagine the Future of Digital Currencies – Dr. Yang YOU
To Imagine the Future of Digital Currencies – Dr. Yang YOU
As a teacher, I will push myself to understand the expectations of local employers' and the market dynamics of Hong Kong.

From Quantum Physics to Quantitative Marketing – Dr. Chu (Ivy) Dang
From Quantum Physics to Quantitative Marketing – Dr. Chu (Ivy) Dang
As a science person, I am impressed by our students' strong business acumen. But as a teacher, other than teaching them how to use quantitative tools to make scientific claims, I also hope that I can encourage them to continue to stay inquisitive about the world and apply their classroom knowledge for the betterment of the society.

Insights from Studies on Italian Opera, Policing, and the Slave Trade
Insights from Studies on Italian Opera, Policing, and the Slave Trade
小班教學可否有效提升學生的學習表現?教育程度較高會否提高學生的未來收入?增加警察人數能否降低犯罪率?這些都是政策制定者關心的問題。要回答這些問題,一般會收集數據,研究兩個變數(學生人數、學生成績)之間的關係。
The Global Trade Outlook Looks Gloomy
The Global Trade Outlook Looks Gloomy
二次大戰後,全球貿易的增長持續快於全球GDP的增長,成為推動全球經濟的主要動力;同時,貿易增長較快,表示經濟體之間的互動愈來愈多,也是全球化正在進行的一個指標。然而,這個趨勢到2008年起便停止。金融海嘯後,貿易增長總的來說稍慢於GDP增長。
Revamping Hong Kong’s Headquarters Economy Strategy
Revamping Hong Kong’s Headquarters Economy Strategy
在亞洲,上海和新加坡的總部經濟發展尤為出色。上海利用其在製造業、科技和物流方面的優勢,吸引如美國特斯拉(Tesla)、德國博世(Bosch)、日本三井住友銀行(Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation)、英國阿斯利康(AstraZeneca)等國際業界龍頭在當地建立總部。新加坡則積極實行人才新政和創新,以驅動發展。
Insights from Studies on Italian Opera, Policing, and the Slave Trade
Insights from Studies on Italian Opera, Policing, and the Slave Trade
小班教學可否有效提升學生的學習表現?教育程度較高會否提高學生的未來收入?增加警察人數能否降低犯罪率?這些都是政策制定者關心的問題。要回答這些問題,一般會收集數據,研究兩個變數(學生人數、學生成績)之間的關係。
港大評測報告:英文語境國產AI模型多處劣勢 文心一言中文通用能力跑輸ChatGPT
港大評測報告:英文語境國產AI模型多處劣勢 文心一言中文通用能力跑輸ChatGPT
生成式人工智能(AI)工具發展日新月異,香港大學經濟及工商管理學院今日(12日)發表一項人工智能大語言模型評測綜合排行榜,通過港大深圳研究院建立評分系統,比較十多款大模型表現,顯示由中國科企百度開發的「文心一言」,在中文語境下綜合得分最高,但在「通用語言能力」卻跑輸「ChatGPT4-Turbo」,而大部分國產模型在英文語境下表現均處於「稍微劣勢」。

The Global Trade Outlook Looks Gloomy
The Global Trade Outlook Looks Gloomy
二次大戰後,全球貿易的增長持續快於全球GDP的增長,成為推動全球經濟的主要動力;同時,貿易增長較快,表示經濟體之間的互動愈來愈多,也是全球化正在進行的一個指標。然而,這個趨勢到2008年起便停止。金融海嘯後,貿易增長總的來說稍慢於GDP增長。