Export Liberalization and Domestic Policy Distortion: Evidence from VAT Rate Dispersion around China'sWTOAccession Speaker：Chen Xiaoping Time: 14:00pm,Friday, July 24, 2020 Site：Tencent Meeting ID 968 488 643 Abstract: Tax policies are implemented with significant degree of distortion across firms. Using data on Chinese firms' value-added tax (VAT) payment, we empirically investigate whether export liberalization affects the within-industry VAT rate dispersion across firms, a direct measure of distortion. Adopting the trade policy uncertainty (TPU) shock upon China's WTO accession as the identification strategy, we use a difference-in-difference approach to show that export liberalization through the removal of TPU significantly decreases the within-industry VAT rate dispersion. This result remains significant throughout a series of robustness checks. Our paper thus highlights another source of gains from trade liberalization through mitigating domestic misallocation. Introduction to the Speaker： Chen Xiaoping is currently working at the Department of Economics, Academy of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His main research interests include international trade issues, such as trade theory, trade policy, trade and innovation, trade and environment, and China issues related to trade. His papers published in Journal of Development Economics, Review of International Economics and other journals. Leverage Dynamics in the Haze of Pandemics Speaker：Yu Luping Abstract: We empirically investigate the effects of pandemics on corporate leverage dynamics from firm-level data in 46 economies between 1980 and 2018. Using the index of discussion about pandemics to measure pandemic concern, we find that pandemic concern is associated with higher observed leverage, lower target leverage, and slower movement toward the target during pandemics. The impacts of pandemics on leverage dynamics are stronger for more financially constrained firms and for economies with worse credit or medical conditions. Results using an instrumental variable based on average pandemic concern in neighboring countries strengthen the identification and confirm our main results. Introduction to the Speaker： Lu Ping Yu is a PhD in finance from The University of Hong Kong. His thesis was accepted for publication by The Journal of Financial Economics.