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I am an Assistant Professor of Economics at the National School of Development and the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development, Peking University. I received my Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan in 2020.
My research interests lie in development economics and personnel economics. I study the determinants and consequences of human capital formation, the role of industrial policies in boosting productivity, and how personnel management shapes employee performance and well-being. To address these questions, I combine microdata, policy experiments, and randomized controlled trials.
Link to my CV
Email: hyxu@nsd.pku.edu.cn
Papers
Papers
"The Long-Term Health and Economic Consequences of Improved Property Rights." Journal of Public Economics, 2021.
Early-life exposure to China's Household Responsibility System reform improves later-life outcomes, but exposure at critical school ages reduces human capital investment.
"Hostel Takeover: Living Conditions, Reference Dependence, and the Well-being of Migrant Workers," with Ach Adhvaryu and Anant Nyshadham. Journal of Public Economics, 2023.
Worker satisfaction depends critically on how expectations are set by firms. Migrant workers experienced large losses in subjective well-being when randomized improvements in hostel living conditions were more modest than expected.
"The Human Capital Effects of Access to Elite Jobs," with Ach Adhvaryu. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2024.
Individuals who enjoyed greater access to elite bureaucratic jobs invested more in schooling and achieved better labor market outcomes.
"Land Reform and Health Endowments at Birth," with Yawen Ding and Xiaobing Wang. Journal of Comparative Economics, 2025.
China's decollectivization raised household resources but collapsed the rural collective medical system; on net, nutritional gains outweighed reduced maternal care, improving health at birth.
"The Power of Children in Energy Conservation: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial," with Yuan Wang, Xiaoguang Xu, and Yongmei Zhou. Journal of Development Economics, 2025.
An activity-based school program improves students' knowledge and practices of energy conservation, leading to a 7% reduction in household electricity consumption.
"The Agricultural and Economic Impacts of Massive Water Diversion," with Guangbo Huang, Chong Liu, Tianyang Xi, and Wei You. Journal of Development Economics, 2025.
China's South-North Water Diversion Project boosts agricultural productivity, shifts cropping patterns, and raises incomes in water-receiving regions, with limited adverse effects on source areas. (A summary is available on VoxDev.)
"Social Learning, Agricultural Extension, and Fertilizer Application in Nepal," with Diwas Raj Bista and Zhenle Duan. China Economic Journal, 2026.
Inefficient fertilizer use is widespread among farmers, but training and peer learning substantially reduce such inefficiencies.
"The Socioeconomic Impacts of Industrial Parks in Ethiopia," with Guangbo Huang and Min Wang. Journal of Urban Economics, forthcoming.
Industrial parks in Ethiopia have driven economic growth, urbanization, and women's empowerment, but their impacts remain largely localized and hinge critically on location fundamentals.
"Managerial Attention, Employee Attrition, and Productivity: Evidence from a Field Experiment," with Hugh Wu and Shannon Liu. Revise & Resubmit, Management Science.
How managers allocate attention across employees shapes workplace outcomes.
"Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives and Employee Performance: Evidence from a Field Experiment," with Hugh Wu and Seth Carnahan. Revise & Resubmit, Strategic Management Journal.
Communicating organizational CSR to employees improves retention and attendance, with effects varying between externally oriented and employee-focused initiatives.
"Sanitation and Human Capital Accumulation: Long-Run Impacts of a Nationwide Campaign in China," with Yinhe Liang, Xiaobo Peng, and Jiawei Zhang. Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Development Economics.
Large-scale sanitation improvements raise human capital, with benefits persisting across generations.
"The Impact of the #MeToo Movement on Customer-Facing Employees: A Randomized Controlled Trial," with Hugh Wu and Adina Sterling.
Randomized exposure to the #MeToo movement reduces victim-blaming beliefs among female employees, encouraging them to confront harassment and improving their workplace performance and well-being.
"Training Midwives Saves Lives: Evidence from China’s New Midwifery Campaign," with Ach Adhvaryu, Yawen Ding, and Qiong Zhang.
China's midwife training campaign saved over 500,000 newborn lives per year and improved mothers' health and economic outcomes.
"In-group Preferences and Land Misallocation in China."
Policymakers' social preferences for in-group members led to spatial misallocation of industrial activities.
Selected Work in Progress
Selected Work in Progress
"The Value of Managing Up: A Field Experiment in the Workplace," with Ach Adhvaryu, Anant Nyshadham, and Hugh Wu.
Intervention and Data Collection Completed. AEA RCT Registry
"The Intergenerational Impact of Financial Reparations: Evidence from the Cherokee Nation," with Ach Adhvaryu, Randy Akee, Alexander Fertig, and Emilia Simeonova.
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