I am an Assistant Professor of Economic History at the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Research Affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). My research interests include political economy, gender, culture and narrative, and early modern and modern China. 

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My work includes research on the rise of women, the self-perpetuation of authoritarian regimes, and the consequences of affirmative action policies. By leveraging non-conventional data—ranging from poetry to crowd-sourced genealogies—and tracing the impact of historical events across time and institutional settings, my work centers on the role of values, beliefs, and norms in shaping economic and political disparities.

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Introducing the systematic study of folklore to economic history, my research demonstrates how historical narratives serve as reservoirs of cultural values. In a more recent project, I explore cultural change following the Industrial Revolution through the study of proverbs. Another ongoing line of inquiry concerns cultural values in China across space and time, within and between ethnic groups. These strands of my work are further discussed in a recent interview with Yale EGC. ​​

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Research Opportunities

Please contact me by email if you are interested in gaining research experience. Previous part-time research assistants have gone on to PhD programs at institutions such as Bocconi, LMU Munich, LSE, Minnesota, NYU, Toronto, and WUSTL, and to pre-doctoral positions at Oxford and Manchester.​​​​​​​​​​​​​