Working papers

Protecting Property Rights under State Ownership: Evidence from China (Full text available upon requests)

Abstract: My job market paper shows that monopoly matters for investment in institutions. The subsequent question is why this is the case. This paper provides evidence suggesting that monopoly serves as the de facto institution for protecting private property rights in the absence of formal ones. Unlike in capitalist economies, high-skilled workers in communist economies exhibit a preference for the state sector even in the absence of wage premiums. Analysis of Chinese data from 1992 to 2006 reveals that high-skilled workers are motivated to work in the state sector not primarily for wage differentials (and sometimes not at all for high-skilled managers), but rather for rent differentials. These differentials are measured by the asset per employee ratio, which can reach as high as 26.6 percent for high-skilled managers, in the state sector compared to the non-state sector. Higher-skilled workers join the state sector for better positions with richer monopoly rents and higher capacity protecting them from being taken away.

Negative shocks, Political Collectivity, and State Capacity: Evidence from China (Abstract and full text available upon request)

Work in Progress

Social Norms, Family Structure and Political Regime: Evidence from China

The Origin of Corporations with Limited Liability in Family Structure: Evidence from China

Publications

Physical vs. Institutional Public Goods Provision: Evidence from China (Job Market Paper European Journal of Politcal Economy, Vol. 90, Part B, December 2025, 102737)

Abstract: This paper argues that political and market concentration levels explain why developing economies often underinvest in institutional infrastructure and legal capacity. Economic growth challenges this equilibrium, incentivizing rulers to invest in institutional infrastructure complementary to physical infrastructure. Rulers jointly invest to expand market entry and size only if they can secure higher rents and preserve institutions favoring concentration. The theoretical model predicts that physical infrastructure investment grows faster than institutional investment as market concentration rises. Using provincial coal reserve shares as an instrument for market concentration, a difference-in-differences analysis of Chinese data from 1997–2006 shows that the fiscal expenditure ratio of physical to institutional infrastructure increased 78% faster in provinces within the top market concentration quartile in 2000—the year before China joined the WTO.

Gender and Off-Farm Employment: Evidence from Rural China (with Xiaobing Wang, Jikun Huang, Linxiu Zhang, and Scott Rozelle), China & World Economy, 2016, Vol.24 No.3, 18-36.
Incentives and Management in the Fiscal Reform in China Towns (with Renfu Luo, Linxiu Zhang, Chengfang Liu, Christine Wong, and Scott Rozelle) (in Chinese), China Journal of Economics, 2014, Vol.1 No.1, 1-17.
The Link between Credit Markets and Self-Employment Choice among Households in Rural China (with Denise Hare), Journal of Asian Economics, 2013, Vol.26 No.C, 52-64.
Fiscal Pressure from Population Aging in Developed Economies (in Chinese), Economic Research and Management, 2013, No.6.
Optimal Liquidity and Macroeconomic Stability (with Il Houng Lee), IMF Working Paper, 2012, No.135.
Fiscal Risk in Euro Area (with Guoqi Wu, in Chinese), China Public Finance, 2011, No.3.
The Financial Crisis and China's Future Growth” (with Li Qi), China Currents, 2008, Vol.7, No.3.
Fiscal Policy Options for Rural Collaborative Economic Organization (in Chinese), China Public Finance, 2007, No.10.
On the Reform of the Chinese Banking System and Financial Development (in Chinese), Economic Research and Management, 2006, No.6.
Financial Structure in Economic Development (in Chinese), Journal of Capital University of Economics and Trade, 2006, No.5.
Transition Economy, Soft Budget, and Fiscal Decentralization (in Chinese), Journal of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, 2006, No.2.
Several Patterns in Current Global Capital Flow (in Chinese), Macroeconomic Management, 2005, No.6.
On the Theory of Financial Development: An overview (in Chinese), Economic Perspective, 2003, No.2.
Financial Structure and the Efficiency of Financial System (in Chinese), Economic Science, 2001, No.2.