On the 2026–27 job market
Yutong Zhong
Ph.D. Candidate in Economics · University of Minnesota
I study firm dynamics, economic growth, and the Chinese economy, with a focus on how productivity grows at the firm and aggregate level. My job market paper develops a new decomposition linking micro firm exit to aggregate productivity growth during China’s state sector reforms.
Job market paper
Trimming the Tree to Help It Grow: Selective Exit and Productivity Growth in China’s State Sector
Chinese state-owned enterprises achieved productivity convergence with private firms between 1998 and 2007, with 80% of this improvement driven by selective firm exits. We develop a new decomposition accounting for the fact that exiting firms have both low productivity levels and low predicted growth rates — traditional level-only methods attribute just 12% to exit. The decomposition reveals two distinct phases: “grasp the large, let go of the small” reforms (1998–2002) eliminated underperformers, while institutional reforms (2003–2007) drove within-firm operational improvements.