Economics Seminar（2014-10）

Topic: Swiss Watch Cycles: Evidence of Corruption during Leadership Transition in China

Speaker:Xiaohuan Lan

Affiliation: Cheung Kong GSB

Time:Tuesday, 29 April. 14:00-15:30pm

Location:Room217, Guanghua Building 2

Abstract：

The enormous costs of political power transitions are not inherently unique to democratic elections and campaigns. In China, bribery and gift-sending is rampant during power transitions. From 1993 to 2010, during the local and national leadership transitions that regularly occur every ve years in China, we fi nd that the import value of luxury wrist watches, a popular medium of corrupt exchanges, triples. This pattern does not exist in Chinese imports of non-luxury watches, nor in the imports of luxury watches in Hong Kong, Singapore, or the United States.

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