Economic Returns to Communist Party Membership: Evidence from Urban Chinese Twins

Abstract

This article estimates the returns to membership of the Chinese Communist Party using unique twins data we collected from China. Our OLS estimate shows a Party premium of 10%, but the within-twin-pair estimate becomes zero. One interpretation is that the OLS premium is due to omitted ability and family background. This interpretation suggests that Party members fare well not because of their political status but because of the superior ability that made them Party members. The estimates are also consistent with another interpretation that Party membership not only has its own effect but also has an external effect on siblings. Copyright 2007 The Author(s). Journal compilation Royal Economic Society 2007.

A Political Economy Perspective of the Chinese Government Tactical Behavior

“…However, if we compare the performances of "swing citizens" (indifferent towards the regime) with the one of regime supporters, it's not clear, a priori, whether the first or the latter should obtain a more favorable treatment in a dictatorship. From an anecdotal point of view, it seems that regime supporters generally receive a good treatment (for an empirical analysis of Chinese case see Dickson andRost Rublee, 2000, andLi et al, 2007), but it's not clear how to measure possible advantages of swing groups, and the existent literature does not help much to clarify the issue.…”

“…I will come back on this issue in the following sections. Dickson and Rost Rublee (2000) and Li et al (2007) analyze the advantages of being member of the Chinese Communist Party while Kenny and Winer (2006) and Mulligan et al (2004), from a general perspective, discuss the effects of institutions on tax structure and public policies.…”

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