This dissertation investigates the effects of policy interventions in China’s education, taxation, and labor markets, utilizing three studies to analyze their impacts and consequences. The first study assesses the gendered impacts of mandated education in patrilocal societies, highlighting the importance of taking traditional institutions into consideration when evaluating government interventions. The second examines the labor market following state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform-induced layoffs, revealing temporary adverse effects on less educated workers and an eventual increase in high school completion rates. The third evaluates the shift from a regressive poll tax to a progressive land tax in 18th-century Imperial China and its impact on peasant revolts, underscoring potential mechanisms of such a causal relationship.