Three essays on development economics and political economy

Li Han

This thesis consists of three essays on development economics and political economy. The first essay is about the political economy of economic reforms in autocracies. I look at how economic liberalization influences the selection of political elites using the data on Chinese Communist Party membership. Many argue that economic liberalization, by reducing the extent to which an autocrat can directly control economic resources, induces democratization. This paper suggests that in post-reform China the composition of the ruling Communist Party membership altered in such a way so as to keep political and economic control aligned. National survey data shows that membership increased more among educated individuals with greater private-sector opportunities. Exploiting exogenous variations in college graduates' labor-market outside options, we find evidence that such a change is mainly...