题　目：Trafficking, Violence, and Revolution: The Evidence from Salt Charter System in Qing China

嘉　宾：苗  萌 副教授 中国人民大学

主持人：幸  婧 副教授 上海交通大学安泰经济与管理学院

时　间：2023年5月31日（周三）14:00-15:30

地　点：上海交通大学（徐汇校区）安泰A507 

内容简介:

The accumulation of violence-related human capital, such as martial arts skills and military tactics education, is important for facilitating potential revolutions, which can impose checks on the government. However, it is unclear why people would choose to invest in this type of human capital during peacetime. In this paper we explore the Chinese salt charter system, which divided China into several salt districts with artificially created salt price differentials at borders. It created incentives for salt trafficking and violence-related employment opportunities, which in turn led to the accumulation of violence-related human capital among local residents. Using a special regression discontinuity design and the Difference-in-Discontinuity method, we analyze a local salt charter reform and find that the government's use of violence in cracking down on salt trafficking created a demand among salt traffickers to use violence to protect their cargo and avoid punishment. This ultimately led to a greater accumulation of human capital related to violence, as measured by the Wuju or martial arts examination results in the affected region. These accumulations may have contributed to the demise of the Qing dynasty, as the salt border regions were particularly active during the late Qing revolution.

演讲人简介：

Miao Meng is an Associate Professor in the Department of Money and Finance at the School of Finance and Economics, Renmin University of China. He has a PhD in Financial Economics from the Said Business School, University of Oxford. His research interests include corporate finance, institutional economics and quantitative history. His current research interests are in China-related topics. His research has been published in a number of journals including the Journal of financial economics and Review of Finance.

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