Publications
2025
Fang, T, Hartley J, and Khan, S. 2025. “Making a New Journey: Comparing the Settlement Experiences of Adult and Child Refuges in Newfoundland and Labrador,” Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees.
Abstract: This article applies the ACL framework (Age at migration, Context/contact opportunities, and Life cycle stage) and uses qualitative interview data to compare the integration of Syrian adult and child refugees in St. John’s, Canada. Almost all children report having Canadian-born friends, outpacing the adults, facilitated by highly integrated classrooms. Their recreational activities are less structured, while adults focus on language school or settlement agency events. Children are more open to new experiences and are much more optimistic about Canadian weather and food. They more often walk to school by bus, in contrast to adults who favour automobiles for transportation. This can be attributed to the fact that children are zoned to nearby schools as opposed to attending centralized language classes.
Fang, T, Morley Gunderson, Viet Hoang Ha, and Ming H. 2025. “The Short-term Effects of COVID-19 on Labour Market Outcomes of Recent Immigrants to Canada,” Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: An International Journal.
Abstract: Our difference-in-differences analysis indicates that COVID-19 had a disproportionately adverse effect on the employment of recent immigrants relative to Canadian-born individuals, especially in the case of those in lower-level occupations and those in industries hard hit by the pandemic. The effects of COVID-19 on hours worked for those who remained employed were modest, as were the differential effects for recent immigrants, highlighting that most of the adjustment occurred in the extensive margin of reduced employment rather than the intensive margin of hours worked. COVID-19 was associated with higher wages for recent immigrants who remain employed relative to their Canadian-born counterparts, particularly among recent immigrants in lower-level occupations and hard-hit industries. The reasons for these patterns are discussed.
Fang, T, Ge, L, Hartley J. 2025. “Quest for Talents: Attraction and Retention of Highly-Skilled Overseas Chinese in the US and Canada,” Asian Economic Papers.
Abstract: Using Ordinary Least Squares, probit, and semi-nonparametric regression analysis on survey data, this article examines the factors associated with the successful economic integration of Chinese returnees, as indicated by their career and income satisfaction. Those motivated to return by talent policy are substantially more likely to be economically satisfied and satisfied with their career. The desire to find a marriage partner also positively correlates with satisfaction, whereas researchers are less likely to be satisfied than those in other professions. Moreover, concerns about spousal employment, trade relations, and the rule of law correlate with a lower willingness to return among overseas Chinese.
2024
Fang, T, M. Gunderson, V. Ha, and H. Ming. 2024. "Intersectional Analysis of the Labour Market Impacts of COVID: The Triple-whammy of Female, Children, and Lower Skill," International Journal of Manpower.
Abstract: We employ a Gender-Based Plus (GBA+) and intersectionality lens to examine the triple whammy of the differential effect of Covid on the trifecta of being female, lower-skilled and facing a motherhood penalty from school-age children. We use a difference-in-difference framework with Canadian Labour Force Survey data to examine the differential effect of two waves of Covid on three outcomes: employment, hours worked, and hourly wages. We find that the trifecta of being female in a lower-skilled occupation and with school-age children is associated with lower employment, hours worked and wages in normal times compared to males in those same situations. As well, such females face the most severe adjustment consequence from major shocks like Covid, with that adjustment concentrated on the extensive margin of employment, and it is restricted to the immediate First Wave and not on a subsequent Omicron wave.
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJM-11-2022-0521/full/html
Fang, T., Lin, C., Hsu M. 2024. “From a Different Shore: The Economic Performance of Chinese Immigrants in the United States, 1980-2019,” Journal of Labor Research.
Abstract: Using 1980, 1990, and 2000 U.S. Censuses with 2010 and 2019 American Community Surveys by the U.S. Census Bureau, we study how immigrants from China have fared in the U.S. labour market relative to those from other countries over the past 40 years since China began its economic reforms and open-door policy in 1978. Our results show that the earnings of immigrants from China had overtaken those of immigrants from other countries in 1990 and those of U.S.-born workers in 2010. Our Oaxaca and Quantile decomposition results demonstrate that much of the earnings advantage of immigrants from China relative to other immigrant groups and U.S.-born workers over time is attributable to differences in observable characteristics, in which education plays the most important role at the mean and across the earnings distribution. Better endowments for education and higher returns to education than for immigrants from other countries largely explain Chinese immigrants’ successful economic assimilation into the U.S. labour market.
Fang, T., Lin, C., and Tang, X. 2024. “Where Did the Time Go? The Effects of China’s Two-Day Weekend Policy on Labor Supply, Household Work, and Leisure Activities,” China Economic Review.
Abstract: Research on the effect of working time policy yields ambiguous results. The outcome depends on the tradeoff between leisure, consumption, and wage-earning opportunities. Using China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data over the 1993–2000 period, we study the effects of China's Two-Day Weekend Policy, which legislatively changed weekly working days from six to five in May 1995, on labour supply, household work, and wages. The results show that the Chinese policy significantly reduced the weekly work hours of affected workers by four hours, increased the probability of having a second job by 14 percentage points, decreased the time spent on household work, and increased their monthly real wages by 30%.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X2300192X
Dungan, P, Fang, T, Gunderson M, and Murphy S. 2024. ”Macroeconomic Impacts of Immigration in the Canadian Atlantic Region: An. Empirical Analysis Using the Focus Model,” Journal of Immigrants and Refugee Studies.
Abstract: We simulate the impact of an increase in immigration into the Atlantic Provinces based on the FOCUS macro-econometric model at the University of Toronto. That national model was adapted to reflect the regional dimensions of the Atlantic Provinces. We find robust evidence of positive outcomes for the Atlantic region so long as it is part of a broader increase in immigration for the country as a whole. The positive outcome encompasses higher GDP and GDP per capita, higher consumption, and improved government fiscal balances at both the federal and provincial levels that could in turn be used for tax reductions or the enhancement of government services. These benefits could be enhanced further by carefully targeting new immigrants for needed skills and for their likelihood of remaining in the Atlantic region.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15562948.2024.2335952?src=exp-la
Fang, T. and Hartley, J. 2024. “Immigrant Entrepreneurship in Rural and Smaller Communities in Canada: Recent Trends, Unique Opportunities and Challenges,” Immigrant Entrepreneurship in Canada: Challenges and Opportunities. Palgrave MacMillan.
Abstract:This chapter reviews research into immigrant entrepreneurship in smaller cities and rural areas, with a focus on the Canadian context. Data from a survey of 805 Atlantic Canadian employers is then analyzed to assess differences in immigrant business leadership among the region’s cities compared to its rural areas. Our survey data indicates that the urban-rural immigrant executive divide within Atlantic Canada is relatively small. Preliminary analysis demonstrates that an employer’s industry is the main correlate with the incidence of immigrant leadership. Large organizations and those in certain skill-intensive industries appear to be more likely to have an immigrant executive when they are situated in a rural area, likely due to skill shortages.
Fang, T. and Hartley, J. 2024. “The Chinese Labor Market and Corporate Governance,” Research Handbook on Chinese Corporate Governance. Edward Elgar.
Abstract: This chapter reviews the intersection of corporate governance and non-management labour in China. Arguably the key features of Chinese corporate governance are concentrated share ownership, the predominance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and the involvement of government. Concentrated share ownership can increase the risk of self-dealing managers, which is associated with worse labour investment efficiency, and theoretically means that less rent is available to share with employees. SOEs have social stability as a goal, tending to employ excess workers. Their protected positions allow them to pay higher wages. Reforms have improved SOE efficiency, although concerns remain.