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).
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.
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)
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
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)
Undergraduate-level lecture, New York University, Fall 2024, 2025
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.
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)