“Product Display Room” and “General Director Office” of a Chinese Manufacturer in Binh Duong, Vietnam

I Study the Global Mobility of Capital and Labor

I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at Harvard University’s Department of Government. Trained in both Comparative Politics and International Relations, I study the intersection of international and comparative political economy, with a focus on the politics of capital mobility, labor, and regulation in the context of globalization.

My dissertation and related projects explore topics including:

  • The causes and impacts of foreign direct investment (FDI) and global production

  • Political and regulatory risks for FDI

  • Labor and environmental regulation

  • The roles of nationality and national identity in shaping these dynamics

I have regional expertise in China and Japan and have also conducted fieldwork in Indonesia and Vietnam to study foreign firms there.

“Product Display Room” and “General Director Office” of a Chinese Manufacturer in Binh Duong, Vietnam (July 2024)

At Harvard, I am also an AM candidate in the Department of Statistics and a resident affiliate at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science. I am also affiliated with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA), the WCFIA Research Cluster on Business and Government, the WCFIA Program on US-Japan Relations, and the Harvard Center for International Development. My research has also received support from the Harvard University Asia Center and the Institute for Economic and Social Research (LPEM) at Universitas Indonesia.

Before coming to Harvard, I spent three years at Stanford, studying comparative politics and East Asia as a master’s student in East Asian Studies and then working as a data analyst at the Center on Food Security and the Environment. Born and raised in Shandong, China, I studied Japanese and International Relations at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, during which I also spent time at universities in Tokyo, Seoul, and Singapore.

  • Is Nationalism Driving the Popular Backlash Against Globalization?

    • Presentation: MPSA (2024); ISA (2025)

  • Do International Tax Laws Harm Developing States? Domestic Politics, Tax Treaties, and the Right to Tax Foreign Capital

    • Presentation: Asian PolMeth (2024); APSA (2024)

  • Does Democracy Lead to Economic Openness? Political Representation of Labor and Restrictions on Investors' Exit Options

Working Papers

  • (Dissertation book project, tentative title) When Law Enforcement Discriminates Against Multinational Companies

  • Who Wins? A New Perspective on the Distributive Consequences of Globalization in the Global South

  • Strategic Stability: Government Ideology and Financial Regulation Since 2008

  • Career Path and Political Preferences: How Economic Self-Interest Evolves (with Yujin Zhang)

  • Missingness in Dyadic Datasets (with Naijia Liu and Jing Qian)

Work in Progress