“Overseas Students, Ideology, and the Fall of Imperial China” (with Alina Wang), forthcoming, Journal of Economic Growth, (online version: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10887-025-09258-2)

 “The Rise of the Chinese Communist Party” (with Ting Chen), conditionally accepted, Journal of  the European Economic Association

“Millet, Rice, and Isolation: Origins and Persistence of the World's Most Enduring Mega-State” (with Ömer Özak, Louis Putterman, and Shuang Shi), revision requested, Journal of  the European Economic Association

“The Culture and Institutions of Confucianism” (with Ruixue Jia), forthcoming, in Benjamin Enke, Paola Giuliano, Nathan Nunn, and Leonard Wantchekon (eds), Handbook of Culture and Economic Behavior, Elsevier Press.

“The Rise of Chinese Clan” (with Wenbing Wu), under review

“Commercial Revolution in Medieval China” (with Ting Chen)

“Trading Favours through the Revolving Door: Evidence from China’s Primary Land Market” (Ting Chen, Li Han, and Jiaxin Xie). The Economic Journal 133(649): 70-97, January 2023. 

“Surname Distance and Technology Diffusion: The Case of the Adoption of Maize in Late Imperial China” (with Ying Bai). Journal of Economic Growth, 27, 569-607, 2022.

 “The Economic Impact of the West: A Reappraisal” in The Cambridge Economic History of China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 354-413, 2022

 “The Political Economy of China's Great Leap Famine” in The Cambridge Economic History of China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 354-413, 2022

“War Shocks, Migration, and Historical Spatial Development in China” (with Ting Chen). Regional Science and Urban Economics, 94, 103718, 2022.

“Malthus Goes to China: The Effect of “Positive Checks” on Grain Market Development, 1736–1910” (with Yanfeng Gu). The Journal of Economic History 81 (4): 1137-1172, 2021.

“Political Elites and Hometown Favoritism in Famine-stricken China” (with Titi Zhou). Journal of Comparative Economics 49 (1): 22-37, 2021.

“Social Mobility in Late Imperial China: Reconsidering the “Ladder of Success” Hypothesis” (with Qin Jiang). Modern China 47(5): 628-661, 2021.

“Long Live Keju! The Persistent Effects of China’s Civil Examination System” (with Ting Chen and Chicheng Ma). The Economic Journal 130 (631): 2030-2064, October 2020.
Winner of 2020 Royal Economic Society Prize for the best paper published in the Economic Journal in 2020.  

“Busting the “Princelings”: The Campaign against Corruption in China’s Primary Land Market” (with Ting Chen). The Quarterly Journal of Economics 134 (1): 185-226, 2019.

“Do Land Revenue Windfalls Create A Political Resource Curse? Evidence from China” (with Ting Chen), Journal of Development Economics 123: 86-106, 2016.

“Of Maize and Men: The Effect of a New World Crop on Population and Economic Growth in China” (with Shuo Chen). Journal of Economic Growth 21 (1): 71-99, 2016.

 “Fiscal Incentives and Policy Choices of Local Governments: Evidence from China” (with Li Han). Journal of Development Economics 116: 89-104, 2015.

“Diffusing Knowledge While Spreading God’s Message: Protestantism and Economic Prosperity in China, 1840-1920” (with Ying Bai). Journal of the European Economic Association 13 (4): 669-698, 2015.

“Can Cultural Norms Reduce Conflicts? Confucianism and Peasant Rebellions in Qing China” (with Chicheng Ma). Journal of Development Economics, 111: 132-149, 2014.

“Autarky and the Rise and Fall of Piracy in Sixteenth-Century China” (with Chicheng Ma). The Journal of Economic History, 74 (2): 509-534, 2014.

“The Emperor Strikes Back: Political Status, Career Incentives, and Grain Procurement during China’s Great Leap Forward.” Political Science Research and Methods, 2 (2): 179-211, 2014.

 “The Tragedy of the Nomenclature: Career Incentives and Political Radicalism during China’s Great Leap Famine” (with Shuo Chen). American Political Science Review, 105 (1): 27-45, 2011.

“Climate Shocks and Sino-nomadic Conflict” (with Ying Bai). The Review of Economics and Statistics 93 (3): 970–98, 2011.