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Working Papers​

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"High-Value Work and the Rise of Women: The Cotton Revolution and Gender Equality in China"  [SSRN]  

• Media Coverage: INET, Dissenter, Faculti, Aeon, Economics Detective, BBC Radio 4

• Selected Presentations: Chicago Booth, LSE, Northwestern, NYU Stern, Toulouse,  SITE 2023, Barcelona GSE, BREAD/CEPR/STICERD/TCD Conference on Development Economics, IZA/SOLETransatlantic Meeting for Labor Economics

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"Autocratic Rule and Social Capital: Evidence from Imperial China" ​ [SSRN]

• Media Coverage: VoxDev, ChinaEconTalk, Penn's Exchange, Lipton Matthews,

​Quantitative History Blog, Washington Post​​​​​

• Selected Presentations: Bonn, Chicago Harris, Yale, NBER Organizational Economics, NBER Summer Institute, Barcelona GSE

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"The Short- and Long-Run Effects of Affirmative Action: Evidence from Imperial China," with B. Zhang  [SSRN]  [CEPR]

• Selected Presentations: Penn, Notre Dame, Oxford, UCL, POLECONUK, NBER Economics of Culture and Institutions, BSE Summer Forum, Northwestern New Economic History of China Conference, ASSA 2017/2022​​

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"Values of China: Toward a Cultural Map"  ​[SSRN]

• Selected Presentations: AMSE, Helsinki GSE, Utrecht, PKU INSE, Harvard Workshop on Historical Kinship, Psychology, and Economic Prosperity,  KCL Workshop in Comparative Politics and Political Economy, Oxford-Tsinghua Conference on Chinese Economic History from the Comparative Perspective

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"Enlightenment Under Autocracy: The Origins of Liberalism in China," with X. Luo 

• Selected Presentations: UChicago History and Theory of Capitalism Workshop, Durham, Queen's University Belfast, CEPR Economic History Symposium 2025, EHS 2024

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Selected Work in Progress​

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"Women and Asylums" (draft coming soon)

"British Industrialization and Cultural Change: Evidence from the Use of Proverbs," with E. Ash (first draft completed)

"History as Evolution: The Case of China"

“Raising Dragons,” with J. Nye.​

"Violence and Missing Women in China," with T. Sng and S. Zhong

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Publications

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"Folklore," with S. Michalopoulos

Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 2021, 136 (4), 1993–2046.

Editor's Choice  PDF  Appendix  Slides  Data ​​

• ​Media Coverage: Broadstreet, GrowthChat, Impactful Research, Policy Implications, Barron's, EnDevEcon, Boston Globe, Development Impact, LSE Economic History

• Selected Presentations: Bonn, LEAP, NES, Northwestern, Nottingham, Pompeu Fabra, Toulouse, WEHC 2018, ASREC 2019

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"Friends from Afar: The Taiping Rebellion, Cultural Proximity and Primary Schooling in the Lower Yangzi,1850-1949," with Y. Hao   

Explorations in Economic History, 63 (2017): 44-69.  PDF  Slides

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Book Reviews & Book Chapters

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Book Review for "D. Ma and R. Von Glahn, The Cambridge Economic History of China. Volume II," Economic History Review, 76 (2023): 989-990. PDF​

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"Folklore," In: Kurtz, L.R. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict, vol. 4. Academic Press, 2022. PDF

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Book Review for "M. Tanimoto and R. B. Wong, Public Goods Provision in the Early Modern Economy: Comparative Perspectives from Japan, China, and Europe,"

Economic History Review, 73 (2020): 335-336. PDF