Science should serve the people! Based on this philosophy most of my research is applied work and real-issue-oriented. My research interests currently lie in labour economics, development economics and health economics, with a special focus of the on-going rural-to-urban migration in China. For the details please see my research statement. (The left picture is a photo of Shenzhen, a highly developed city in China. The right picture is my dad's painting, Chengzhuang, 晨装, which depicts two migrant workers are cleaning the window in the morning.)
Publication: Referred Journal Article: Economic reform, education expansion, and earnings inequality for urban males in China, 1988 - 2009, with Xin Meng and Kailing Shen, Journal of Comparative Economics, 41(1), 227-244, 2013. (Highly cited research awarded by JCE in Dec. 2016)
How and why do Chinese urban students outperform their rural counterparts? with Guochang Zhao, Jingjing Ye and Zhengyang Li, China Economic Review, 45, 103-123, 2017.
Binary choice model with interactive effects, with Thomas Tao Yang and Qiankun Zhou, Economic Modelling, 70, 338-350, 2018.
Does contact improve attitudes towards migrants in China? Evidence from urban residents, Economics of Transition, 26(2), 149-200, 2018.
Moment restrictions and identification in linear dynamic panel data models, with Chirok Han and Tue Gorgens, Annals of Economics and Statistics, Special Issue on Panel Data Econometrics, 134, 146-179, 2019. (For the previous version please see WP No. 2016-633 at RSE in ANU.)
Social networks and mental health outcomes: Chinese rural-urban migrant experience, with Xin Meng, Journal of Population Economics, 33, 155-195, 2020.
The Role of Locus of Control in Adulthood Outcomes: Evidence from Australian Twins, with Michael Kidd, Anh T. Le, Kathy Kirk and Nick Martin, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 179, 566-588, 2020.
On the Asymptotic Distribution of the Quadratic GMM Estimator of a Dynamic Panel Data Model under a Unit Root, with Chirok Han and Tue Gorgens, Economic Letters, 197, 109605, 2020. (Previous title "Asymptotic distribution of the quadratic GMM estimator in linear dynamic panel data models")
Can information influence the social insurance participation decision of China's rural migrants? with John Giles, Xin Meng and Guochang Zhao, Journal of Development Economics, 150, 102645, 2021.
Book Chapter: Consumption and savings of migrant households: 2008-2014, with Xin Meng and Jinjun Xue, China's new sources of economic growth: reform, resources and climate change, edited by Ross Garnaut, Ligang Song, Fang Cai and Lauren Johnston, 2016. (Digested by East Asian Forum.)
Working Papers: Who are the movers? Who are the stayers? Attrition in the Migrant Survey of the Rural-Urban Migration in China Project, 2008-2013 (under revision). Pandemics and Intergenerational Mobility of Education: Evidence from the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Epidemic in China, with Minhee Chae and Wenquan Liang.
Other Research Experiences: Since 2011 I have devoted substantial time to the Rural-to-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) Project as a research assistant. I have been participating in revision of questionnaires and survey manuals, fieldwork training, sampling, quality control, data checking and cleaning, and daily coordination and survey implementation. Since 2017 I have participated the RUMiC survey in Jinan University.