About

I am an Associate Professor and past Chair of the Economics Department at the University of San Francisco and am currently the Director of the Master of Science Program in International and Development Economics (IDEC).

My research concerns the economics of information, incentives, and institutions, primarily as applied to the development and governance of China.  I have written on anti-corruption campaigns, media control, environmental transparency, popular protest, rights consciousness, and the relationship of adult mortality to long-run economic growth, among other topics.

My research has been published in the American Journal of Political Science, the China Quarterly, Genetics in Medicine, the Journal of Economic Growth, the Journal of Politics, the Journal of Theoretical Politics, Modern China, the Quarterly Journal of Political Science, and World Development.

I founded and was the director of USF’s new Master of Science in Applied Economics Program, which focuses on training students to work and research in the growing field of Tech Economics. I also supervise graduate students interested in China or political economy in the Master of Science Program in International and Development Economics. My graduate-level courses at USF include microeconomic theory, international trade, international finance, and a course in institutions, markets, and platforms focused on the digital economy. In the undergraduate program I have taught game theory, macroeconomics, and international finance, and introduction to economics. I have also taught courses on international development, the Chinese economy, Chinese politics, authoritarian politics, formal models of political science, mathematical methods for political science, and authoritarian politics at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.

I am a fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program and a Nonresident Scholar at UC San Diego’s 21st Century China Center. I am also a host on the New Books Network Economics Channel, where I interview social scientists about their new books, including both academics and popular/trade books. I am a co-founder of the USF-Stanford Bay Area Tech Economics Seminar.

I earned my PhD in Economic Analysis and Policy from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and my BA in Asian Studies from Dartmouth College. I have also studied at the London School of Economics, Beijing Normal University, National Taiwan University, and on a Fulbright Scholarship at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

How to find me