Publications 

Forthcoming in Economic Development and Cultural Change

[Link] [Manuscript] [Supplementary Appendix]


Job Market Paper

    [Draft]

Abstract: College education is widely regarded as a pathway to local labor markets, particularly where migration frictions limit labor mobility. This paper examines how such frictions shape college choices in China, where mobility is constrained by both formal migration restrictions and informal barriers. Using a national administrative dataset on four-year college admissions from 2005 to 2011, I show that relaxing migration restrictions through hukou reforms enabled colleges in reformed cities to attract higher-quality students. The largest gains occurred in colleges located in economically more developed cities relative to students' origins, consistent with the mechanism of improved local labor market prospects. Counterfactual analysis based on a college choice model indicates that easing migration restrictions in major cities strengthens the sorting of stronger students into treated colleges and raises aggregate welfare, though the gains are unevenly distributed. Welfare increases further when students can freely access the highest-paying labor markets. These results highlight the role of both formal and informal migration frictions in shaping spatial skill sorting and welfare.


Presentation (* indicates scheduled):

American Economic Association (AEA) Annual Meeting*, Philadelphia PA 2026

Southern Economic Association (SEA) Annual Meeting*, Tampa, FL 2025

Western Economic Association International (WEAI) Annual Meeting, virtual day 2025 

Midwest Economics Association (MEA) Annual Meetings, Kansas City, MO 2025

KDSA Research Symposium West Lafayette, IN 2024 (Best Presentation Winner Award)


Working in Progress

(Preliminary draft available upon request)

Abstract: To understand how students make college choices and how skilled individuals are spatially distributed, we develop and estimate a spatial general equilibrium model in the context of China. The model features two key stages: a college choice stage and a labor market choice stage, and incorporates the following elements. (1) In the first stage, students choose colleges while anticipating migration costs when entering the labor market in the second stage. These migration costs are lower when the labor market is closer to the student's home or to the location of the attended college. (2) The model accounts for idiosyncratic matches between students and colleges in the first stage, and between students and locations in the second stage, and estimates the parameters characterizing the extent of these idiosyncratic matches. We derive gravity equations for both college and labor market choices and present preliminary evidence that the model closely matches observed patterns.