公之從事，實以懿文

Welcome!

I am an Assistant Professor in the Wilf Family Department of Politics at
New York University (NYU).

In 2020, I obtained my PhD in Politics at Princeton University, where I was a graduate student fellow of the Program for Quantitative and Analytical Political Science (Q-APS) and a graduate student affiliate with the Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China. My advisors were Carles Boix (Chair), Rory Truex, and Kosuke Imai. In 2020-21, I was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST). After that, I was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political and Social Change at the Australian National University. My alma mater is the University of Notre Dame

My research interests center on historical political economy, politics of state-building, and bureaucracy. I also do research on statistical methods of causal inference. My work has appeared or will soon appear in
American Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies,
Journal of Politics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Research and Politics, among others.

In 2022, I received the Mancur Olson Award for the Best Dissertation in Political Economy completed in the past two years given by the American Political Science Association (APSA). In 2017, my colleagues and I won the Fragile Families Challenge for the best statistical prediction of material hardship among disadvantaged children in the United States. In 2015, I won the Malcolm Jewell Award for the best graduate student paper at the Southern Political Science Association (SPSA) Annual Meeting.

Book & Book Projects

The Political Economy of China's Imperial Examination System
(with Clair Yang )
Forthcoming, Cambridge University Press
Cambridge Elements in Political Economy

Frightened Leviathan: How Fighting Corruption Affects Bureaucrats in China
Book manuscript based on prior work that has received the
Mancur Olson Award for the Best Dissertation in Political Economy

Leviathan Reborn (with Xiaoming Zhang & Joy Chen)

Article Publications

From Powerholders to Stakeholders: State-building with Elite Compensation in Early Medieval China (with Joy Chen & Xiaoming Zhang)
Forthcoming, American Journal of Political Science
PDF
Previously titled "Leviathan's Offer: State-building with Elite Compensation in Early Medieval China"
• Media: Broadstreet

Social Mobility in the Tang Dynasty as the Imperial Examination Rose and Aristocratic Family Pedigree Declined, 618-907 CE
(with Fangqi Wen & Michael Hout)
(2024) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121 (4) e2305564121
PDF

Matching Methods for Causal Inference with Time-series Cross-sectional Data
(2023) American Journal of Political Science 67(3), 587-605
(with Kosuke Imai & In Song Kim)
PDF, Software

Frightened Mandarins: The Adverse Effects of Fighting Corruption on Local Bureaucracy
(2022) Comparative Political Studies 55(11), 1807-1843
PDF

Measuring the predictability of life outcomes with a scientific mass collaboration
(2020) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 17(15), 8398-8403
(List of authors)
PDF

Using LASSO to Assist Imputation and Predict Child Wellbeing
(2019) Socius 5, 1-21.
(with Diana Stanescu & Soichiro Yamauchi)
PDF

Pollution Lowers Support For China's Regime: Quasi-experimental Evidence from Beijing
(2018) Journal of Politics 80(1), 327-331 (with Meir Alkon)
PDF

Awakening Leviathan: Effect of Democracy on State Capacity
(2018) Research and Politics 5(2) (with Yiqing Xu)
-- Awarded the 2015 Malcolm Jewell Award for the best graduate student paper presented at the SPSA annual meeting.
PDF

Selected Papers in Progress

State-Building or State-Weakening? The Consequences of Military Control in Medieval China
(with Joy Chen)
PDF

Teaching

Political and Economic Development in Comparative Perspectives

Undergraduate-level lecture, New York University, Fall 2024
Course Instructor

The Origins of Political Order in Asia

Undergraduate-level seminar, New York University, Spring 2024
Course Instructor

Graduate Chinese Politics

Graduate-level seminar, New York University, Spring 2024
Course Instructor

The Origins of Political Order in Asia

Undergraduate-level lecture, Australian National University, Spring 2022
Course Instructor

Political Economy of Development

Graduate-level seminar, Australian National University, Spring 2022
Course Instructor

Software

Kim, In Song, Adam Rauh, Erik Wang, and Kosuke Imai. ''PanelMatch: Matching Methods for Causal Inference with Time-Series Cross-Sectional Data.'' available through The Comprehensive R Archive Network.