The National Institute for Fiscal Studies at Tsinghua University, the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, and the National Bureau of Economic Research are jointly sponsoring a conference on health, education, and welfare programs in China, which will take place at Tsinghua University during July 5-7, 2012. The program is being organized by Chong-en Bai of Tsinghua, Wei Li of CKGSB, and Roger Gordon of UCSD and NBER. The conference will consist of roughly twelve papers and twelve discussants.

The aim of the conference is to focus on recent research examining health, education, and welfare programs in China. The design of these programs has been in flux during the reform period. What have been the economic effects of past policy changes? For example, how have health outcomes been affected by changes in access to and the price charged for health care? What have been the effects of past policy changes on the price charged for schooling, on school enrollments, and on future earnings? Given that access to these programs often depends on residency status, how have these programs affected migration rates? How has the safety net provided by welfare programs (including Social Security as well as unemployment insurance) affected economic outcomes, including job turnover as well as consumption fluctuations?

Empirical submissions are encouraged, but theoretical studies focusing on design problems with these programs are also welcome. While the focus of the conference will be on programs in China, we do expect to include some papers as well assessing comparable programs in other countries.