My research interests lie at the intersection of economic history, development economics, and macroeconomics. In my dissertation and ongoing research projects, I am putting together the data of prices and wages in modern and pre-modern China to study the changes in the real wages and wage inequality in those eras. With these empirical findings, I am studying, from theoretical perspectives, the factors driving the changes in real wages and wage inequality, such as factor-biased technological changes, economic openness and globalization, and educational investments. While mainly focusing on historical or long-run economic issues, I also have strong interests in contemporary economic issues and policies in China as well as in other developing economies. For my papers and ongoing projects, please click here.
  
It is very important for economic historians to build first-hand data sets to uncover long-run economic patterns. In my research I have been making great efforts in building such new data sets to advance people's knowledge on Chinese economic history. I am happy to share these data sets with interested scholars. For these data sets, please click here.

I have been recently invited to give talks at various universities and conferences, such as Harvard Business School, University of Colorado at Boulder, HKUST, Chinese University of Hong Kong and the World Economic History Congress, American Economic History Association and the Cliometrics Conference. For my travel schedule, please click here.

I have also received various research grants and dissertation fellowships, such as the US National Science Foundation (Grant SES-0433358) and China National Social Science Foundation (Grant 09CJL009). For a list of the research grants I recently received, please click here.