Working Papers

Unveiling the Fog of Law: Judicial Transparency and Entrepreneurship (with Xing Liu and Xuan Tian)

We document that judicial transparency encourages new business formation by exploiting China's 2014 court judgment publication mandate. This effect is stronger in plaintiff-prone industries but weaker where defendant-side exposure makes disclosure more costly. Transparency promotes entry by improving credit access, institutional quality, and technology-enabled legal services. It also fosters scalable entrants with larger initial employment and stronger post-entry performance. Additional evidence suggests improved allocative efficiency. Surveys confirm that entrepreneurs value a more transparent legal system. Overall, our findings highlight that legal opacity can distort firm dynamics and centralized transparency initiatives reshape entrepreneurial ecosystems via nuanced uncertainty reduction.

Works in Progress

Reformers in the Making: Early Careers, Political Ideology, and Policy Innovation in China (with Guangyu Cao, Ting Chen and Chenran Liu)

Curbing the Grabbing Hand: Access to Justice, Government Expropriation, and Firm Outcomes