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).

I obtained my PhD in Politics from Princeton University in 2020. 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 2025, my coauthored article received Honorable Mention for the Charles Tilly Best Article Award in Comparative and Historical Sociology given by the American Sociological Association (ASA). 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, my coauthored article 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 )
(2025) Cambridge University Press
Open Access Via Cambridge Elements in Political Economy

Leviathan Reborn (with Xiaoming Zhang & Joy Chen)

Article Publications

The Effect of Anti-corruption Efforts on Evaluations of Governance
(2025) Journal of Chinese Governance 10(3), 446–481
Open Access

From Powerholders to Stakeholders: State-building with Elite Compensation in Early Medieval China (with Joy Chen & Xiaoming Zhang)
(2025) American Journal of Political Science (69)2, 607-623
Open Access
Previously titled "Leviathan's Offer: State-building with Elite Compensation in Early Medieval China"
• Media: Broadstreet, 政治学评介
--Honorable Mention, Charles Tilly Best Article Award in Comparative and Historical Sociology given by the American Sociological Association.

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
Open Access
• Media: Broadstreet

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)
Open Access, Software

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

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)
Open Access

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

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

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.
Open Access

Selected Papers in Progress

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

Too Much But Never Enough? Administrative Capacity and Backlashes to State-building in Medieval Japan (with Weiwen Yin)
Open Access

Rebellion Rhymes: Intergroup Cleavage and the Early Chinese Communist Revolution (with Shuren Zheng)

Teaching

Political and Economic Development in Comparative Perspective

Undergraduate-level lecture, New York University, Fall 2024, 2025
Course Instructor

The Origins of Political Order in Asia

Undergraduate-level seminar, New York University, Spring 2024, 2025
Course Instructor

Graduate Chinese Politics

Graduate-level seminar, New York University, Spring 2024, 2025
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.

中文发表(Chinese Publications)

从唐代士族衰亡看史学量化范式的科学使用,《历史研究》2025年第6期,第165-187,192页
(How to Adequately Employ Quantitative Methods in Historical Research from the Perspective of the Fall of the Aristocracy in the Tang Dynasty (2025), Historical Research(6), 165-187, 192)
免费阅读（需注册）(Open Access, registration required)
免费阅读（不需注册）(Open Access, no registration required)
Open Access via SSRN

定量社会科学能为历史学带来什么——以中古士族为例,《学术月刊》2024年第6期,第128-131,112页
(What Quantitative Social Science Can Contribute to History as a Discipline: The Case of the Medieval Chinese Aristocracy (2024), Academic Monthly(6), 128-131, 112)
免费阅读（需注册）(Open Access, registration required)
免费阅读（不需注册）(Open Access, no registration required)