​​​Working papers​​​​​

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

• Media Coverage: The Long Run Blog 

• Selected Presentations: Oxford, UCL, Penn, Notre Dame, NBER Economics of Culture and Institutions

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

• Selected Presentations: Toronto, UCLA Anderson, Purdue, Helsinki GSE, AMSE, Utrecht, CESifo Venice Summer Institute​, NBER Chinese Economy, KCL Comparative Politic & Political Economy Workshop 

​"History as Evolution: The Case of China" [SSRN]

• Selected Presentations: EHA 2025

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

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

• Selected Presentations: Chicago Booth, Northwestern, NYU Stern, LSE, Toulouse, Barcelona GSE, SITE​​

"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: Chicago Harris, Yale, UC San Diego, Bonn, NBER Organizational Economics​​​​

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

• Selected Presentations: Stanford, Yale, Michigan, Durham, QUBelfast, Paris Public Governance Workshop, CEPR Economic History Symposium, UChicago-Beijing Political Economy of Governance Conference.   ​​​​​​​​​​​​

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Selected work in progress​​​​​​​​

"Women and Asylums" (first draft completed)

• Selected Presentations: Yale, UCLA, UBC, NYU Stern, Warwick, St Andrews, York, Trinity College Dublin, HU Berlin

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

• Selected Presentations:  Harvard, Northwestern, PSE, Sciences Po, Bristol, Glasgow, Sussex, ASSA 2024​​​

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

“Raising Dragons,” with J. Nye.​

"Lunacy in Nineteenth-Century England: Trends and Determinants"

 

Book Project

"Values of China: The Cultural Foundations of Economic Transformation" (Under contract)

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Publications​​​​​

Articles

​​“Crowd-Sourced Chinese Genealogies as Data for Demographic and Economic History” 

Explorations in Economic History, Volume 99, January 2026. ​PDF

"Folklore," with S. Michalopoulos

Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 136, Issue 4, November 2021, pp. 1993–2046.

Editor's Choice  PDF  Appendix  Slides  Data ​​

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

• Selected Presentations: Bonn, Northwestern, Nottingham, Pompeu Fabra, Toulouse​​​​

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

Explorations in Economic History, Volume 63, January 2017, pp. 44–69.  PDF  Slides

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Other publications​​

"Predecessors to Qing Fiscal Conservatism: From Wang Yangming to Huang Zongxi and Gu Yanwu" 

Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, Vol. 36, No. 4, 2026 (Symposium on the Ideological Foundations of Qing Taxation). PDF 

​"Folklore" 

Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict, 3rd Edition, Academic Press, 2022. (Invited Reference)  PDF

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Book reviews 

​​​​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​​​​​​

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