Lixin Colin Xu is a lead economist in the Development Research Group of the World Bank. After studying at Peking University and the University of Chicago, he joined the Research Group of the World Bank in 1996. His current research has focused on applied microeconomic topics such as development, industrial organization, corporate governance, governance and institutions, political economy, cultural change, and Chinese economy in transition. He has published widely with articles appearing in Journal of Financial Econ., AER (papers and proceedings), J. Public Econ., J. Labor Econ., J. Law and Econ., JLEO, Review of Econ. & Statistics, J. Development Econ., J. Comparative Econ., Economics of Transition, and so on.