Research

• Robots and Informal Employment in China 

Abstract: This paper examines labor adjustments between the informal and formal sectors in response to the adoption of industrial robots in China. Using a longitudinal household data from 2010 to 2018, I find that robotization increases informal employment. Quantitatively, one more robot per thousand workers increases the share of informal employment by 1.16 percentage points. The reallocation is not driven by new entrants or re-entrants, but by workers initially employed in the formal sector. Formal workers tend to transition into informal jobs, particularly non-manufacturing or non-routine jobs. Lastly, this study explores labor adjustments within households, revealing that wives (daughters) are more likely to enter the labor force and take up informal jobs if their husbands (mothers) work in the informal sector than in the formal sector. 

• Inequality and Growth in China,  Empirical Economics, 2023 (with Markus Brueckner) Paper Slides 

Abstract: We provide estimates of the effects that income inequality has on economic growth in China. Our empirical analysis is at the county level. Using data provided by the China Health and Nutrition Survey, we construct measures of inequality and the growth rates of household incomes per capita for 72 Chinese counties during the period 1989–2015. System-GMM estimates of panel models show that the within-county effect of inequality on economic growth is significantly decreasing in initial average income. For the relatively low levels of initial average incomes that were prevalent in China during the 1980s and 1990s, our model estimates imply that the increase in inequality that occurred in China during the 1980s and 1990s had a significant positive effect on economic growth. However, for current levels of average income, our panel model predicts that inequality has a negative effect on economic growth: a 1 percentage point increase in the Gini would reduce the per annum growth rate by around 1 percentage point. 

Work in progress

• Natural Disasters and Human Development in Asia-Pacific: The Role of External Debt (with Markus Brueckner, Sudyumna Dahal)  

• Remittances and Growth (with Markus Brueckner, Sudyumna Dahal)  

• Occupational Structural Change and Trade  

• Robots, Trade, and Social Mobility  

Working Experience

• Teaching Assistant 

Advanced Macroeconomic Analysis,  Australian National University, 2022-2024 

Teaching Evaluation: 4.5/5    See evaluation

Financial Economics, Xiamen University, 2018

Advanced Financial Economics, Xiamen University, 2017 

• Research Assistant

For Professor Markus Brueckner, Australian National University, 2022-2023

For Professor Xin Meng, Australian National University, 2019-2021

Curriculum Vitae 

You can find my CV here:  CV