Assistant Professor
New York University (NYU)
(Email, GitHub, Twitter)
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,
Journal of Politics,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
Comparative Political Studies,
Journal of Chinese Governance,
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.
The Political Economy of China's Imperial Examination System
(with Clair Yang )
Forthcoming, Cambridge University Press
Cambridge Elements in Political Economy
Leviathan Reborn (with Xiaoming Zhang & Joy Chen)
The Effect of Anti-corruption Efforts on Evaluations of Governance
Forthcoming, Journal of Chinese Governance
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
State-Building or State-Weakening? The Consequences of Military Control in Medieval China
(with Joy Chen)
Revise and Resubmit
PDF
Too Much But Never Enough? Bureaucratic Capacity and Backlashes to State-building in Medieval Japan (with Weiwen Yin)
Undergraduate-level lecture, New York University, Fall 2024
Course Instructor
Undergraduate-level seminar, New York University, Spring 2024, 2025
Course Instructor
Graduate-level seminar, New York University, Spring 2024, 2025
Course Instructor
Undergraduate-level lecture, Australian National University, Spring 2022
Course Instructor
Graduate-level seminar, Australian National University, Spring 2022
Course Instructor
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.