Overseas remittances and policy shocks in post-1949 China: Evidence from the Chaoshan Qiaopi Database

This paper examines overseas remittances in post-1949 China, focusing on how policy shifts affected the security with which recipient households could receive, retain, and use remitted funds. It constructs a county-level panel from the Chaoshan Qiaopi Database for 1945–2000 and links these records to national remittance statistics and indicators of major political campaigns and remittance protection measures. Fixed effects regressions show that campaign-style political mobilisation was associated with weaker remittance security and lower remittance activity, while protection measures were positively associated with remittance activity. The Cultural Revolution was the main exception, as remittances increased rather than declined, possibly reflecting central corrective interventions and a more favourable external environment. Overall, the findings suggest that remittance security offers a useful framework for understanding how political cycles shaped cross-border private transfers in Maoist China.