Sai Ding

Bio: Sai Ding is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Ethnic group & Rural area. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 4 publications receiving 8 citations.

Ethnicity and Income in China: The Case of Ningxia

Abstract: Using a 2006 household survey from the Ningxia Hui autonomous region in China, this paper examines two aspects of the correlation between ethnicity and income: namely, differences in the returns to human capital and the effects of ethnicity- and religion-related social capital. The findings indicate ethnic disparity in the returns to human capital across rural and urban areas. In rural areas, the returns to human capital for the Hui workforce differ according to the place of economic activity (i.e. local employment or migration), whereas no ethnic disparity is found for the urban workforce. We also find that ethnicity- and religion-related social capital plays a significant role among the Hui in rural areas where the level of interethnic social interactions is lower. We use this to suggest that Muslim-oriented attitudes toward trust in social networks of rural Hui households positively and interactively affect income through ethnically open trust attitudes.

Local Public Goods Provision in the Post-Agricultural Tax Era in Rural China

Abstract: This paper investigates regional differences in local public goods provision in rural area in the 2000s, using large village sample surveys (CHIP 2002 and 2007 surveys, a survey in Ningxia) Focuses are on changes in the coverage of public investment projects, regional differences in the determinants of public investment projects, and changes in the coverage of public services provided by village collectives The main findings are as follows First, we confirmed that coverage of public investment projects had increased in the 2000s Second, in spite of concentration of fiscal administration into county level as one of the pillars of the reform of taxation and local fiscal system, administrative villages still played indispensable roles in local public goods provision Third, we found that incentive of peasants, financial ability of villages, and incentive of local government affect location decision and budget structure of public investment projects and that direction and strength of such factors were different by regions

Rural Poverty and Ethnicity in China

Abstract: In this paper I investigate the nature of the differential in poverty by ethnicity in rural China using data from the Chinese Household Income Project in 2002. For that, I compare observed poverty with that in a counterfactual distribution in which ethnic minorities are given a set of relevant village and household characteristics of the Han majority. Results show that rural poverty would be higher among minorities if they had the same regional distribution of Han. On the contrary, the ethnic poverty differential is reduced after equalizing other characteristics of minorities, such as them living in less developed and mountainous areas, their larger number of children, their low education, and their fewer skilled non-agriculture workers. Additionally, I show that poverty among minorities is not even higher because some of these adverse characteristics have a smaller negative impact on them than on Han. Finally, the ethnic per capita (log)income differential is shown to be higher for higher percentiles, with an increasing role of location as the main driver of these differentials.

Trade credit and ethnicity: Case of ethnic minority area in China

Abstract: Using data for trade credit practices, this work investigates interfirm trust formation by ethnic minority firms in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. The main findings of this research are as follows. First, there is a general ethnic bias against ethnic minority firms in receiving trade credit. Second, ethnic minority firms are less eager than Han firms to build interfirm trust with their business partners by offering trade credit, which is partly due to their financing constraints. Third, ethnic minority firms have less trust of other ethnic minority firms in offering trade credit. Fourth, these trade credit practices by ethnic minority firms tend to be more pronounced in those surviving after 2005. Fifth, ethnic minority firms do not share their members' information regarding productivity within their circle of ethnic minority firms. Overall, interfirm trust is insufficiently formed, even among ethnic minority firms.