講座主題：Winter is Coming:Early-life Experiences and Politicians’ Decisions

主講嘉賓：梁平漢（中山大學政治與公共事務管理學院教授）

講座時間：2019年3月28日（周四），下午15：00-17：00

講座地點：沙河校區主教301

嘉賓簡介：梁平漢，中山大學政治與公共事務管理學院教授，博士生導師，中山大學中國公共管理研究中心研究員。主要研究地方政府行為，博弈論，政治經濟學，行為與實驗經濟學。論文發表在Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Comparative Economics, 《經濟研究》、《管理世界》、《經濟學（季刊）》等國内外一流期刊。獲霍英東基金會高等院校優秀青年教師獎，主持國家自科基金課題，國家社科專項重大子課題等。

内容摘要：The preferences ofpoliticians matter in policy-making. This paper focuses on the role of localpoliticians’ early-life experiences in their policy decisions while in office.We take China’s Great Famine (1959–61) as a natural experiment and examine itsimpact on the fiscal decisions of County Party Secretaries (CPS) whoexperienced this famine in their early childhood. We construct a data set thatmatches the biographical information of 2,831 CPS with fiscal data of 1,715counties during 1993–2007. The results indicate that if CPS experienced a moresevere famine that reduced the agricultural population by 10% during theirearly childhood, other things being equal, they will increase fiscalexpenditure on agriculture by 6.8% and increase expenditure on social securityby 10.6%. In addition, a 10% more severe famine in early childhood decreasesagricultural tax by 38.8%. As a result, the early-life experience of famineleads to more grain production and agricultural employment. Aback-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that these influences on agriculturein China are substantial. Furthermore, we also provide evidence that famineexperience takes effect through the formation of policy preference foragricultural development, rather than the formation of beliefs about futurefamine.