Research

Working Papers

Job Market Paper: "The Long-run Impacts of Ancient Chinese Civil Exams on Contemporary Local Innovation "

Abstract: China was historically heavily influenced by civil exams (keju), with the exams focused on recruiting the best academic individuals to serve in government. This paper explores the relationship between prefectures with historically more top scorers on the national exam (jinshi) between 1371 and 1905 and contemporary innovation, measured as the number of top scientists and engineers and the number of patents and their quality, finding a strong positive relationship. Results are robust to using an instrumental variable strategy that measures the minimum river distance from each prefecture to the nearest pine and bamboo forest. A doubling of the number of historically top scorers on the national exam leads to a 33% increase in the number of top scientists and engineers and a 92% increase in the number of patents. Investments in military equipment and telegraph construction play crucial roles sustaining the long-term effects of China’s civil exams.

"The Causal Effects of Pollution on the Mortality of People at Different Ages. Evidence from Mexico City"

Abstract: Previous literature examines the effects of pollution on the health of infants and the elderly in developed countries. However, little is known about the acute effects of pollution on the elderly in developing countries. This research fills this gap in the literature by using the meteorological phenomenon of thermal inversion as an instrumental variable to investigate the acute effects of both PM10 and CO on elderly individuals in Mexico City. Results reveal that PM10 and CO both significantly increase the mortality of elderly people, with the largest effect sizes seen for those over 70 and smaller but still statistically significant effects for those ages 55 to 70. The mortality of infants under one year old was also shown to increase due to pollution exposure, but effect sizes are much smaller than for the elderly. These results suggest that policies reducing pollution may have broader mortality impacts than typically believed.

Work in Progress

"Do Superior High Schools Boost Students' Academic Performance? Evidence from China"

"High Temperatures and Crime: Evidence from China"

"The Effects of US-China Tariff War on China's Innovation"