Professor of Government
1737 Cambridge St., K214 Cambridge, MA 02138
For scholars of Chinese politics
On December 15, 2017, Liz Perry , Lily Tsai , and I organized a Chinese politics workshop at Harvard University in which we invited over 50 scholars to discuss the state of the Chinese politics field. Each participant was invited to submit a memo, on a topic of their choice, to reflect the past, present, and future of Chinese politics research. After the workshop, many participants have generously offered to share their memos online. Here is a zip file that includes these memos: [ DOWNLOAD ]
Xiaobo Lü (UT Austin) and I have launched Chinese Politics Research in Progress (CPRP) — a new virtual workshop series focused on political science research on China. We welcome presentations by scholars at all career stages (e.g., graduate students, post-docs, junior and senior faculty) in comparative politics and international relations and with different methodological approaches (e.g., qualitative, quantitative, formal modeling etc.). The CPRP virtual workshop will be held between *12:00-1:00PM* (Central Standard Time) on Fridays every two or three weeks during the regular academic year. The workshop typically lasts about 1 hour.
- For more information about CPRP, visit our website: https://chinesepoliticsresearchinprogress.com .
- To sign up for presentation, send us an email at [email protected] .
- Subscribe to our email list: https://forms.gle/x66PWULUyuYtW85P9 .
- Follow us on Twitter: @CPRPVirtual.
For early-career scholars in Chinese politics
Taylor Fravel , Yue Hou , Zhenhuan (Reed) Lei , Melanie Manion , Dan Mattingly , and I have formed a Consortium on New Faces in Chinese Politics. We have organized a series of events to help young China scholars navigate field research and the job market. In August 2021, we hosted the first New Faces in Chinese Politics Conference at Duke University. We will rotate the conference at our home institutions, with the second at the University of Wiconsin-Madison in 2022 and University of Pennsylvania in 2023.
On October 20, 2020, we organized a special Zoom Webinar: THE JOB MARKET FOR PHD STUDENTS IN CHINESE POLITICS: 2020 AND AFTER . We invited 12 scholars and practioners to discuss China-related jobs in academia, think tanks, government, and the private sector. Here is the video of the webinar: [ WATCH ]
On March 23, 2021, we organized a Webinar on DOING FIELDWORK IN CHINA: CONVERSATIONS WITH PRACTITIONERS. We invited 12 Chinese politics scholars to discuss why we need to do fieldwork and how to do fieldwork. Here is the recording of the webinar:[ WATCH ]
For future graduate students in political science
Here is a short essay I wrote (updated for 2021) about how to write SOP for graduate school application (including 5 examples from successful applicants): [ DOWNLOAD ]
For scholars of historical political economy
Jean Hong , Xiaobo Lü , Dan Slater , and I have formed the Group of Asian Political History (GRAPH). We organized the inaugural Mini-Conference on Asian Political History at APSA in 2023.
I am one of the editors at Broadstreet, which is a blog dedicated to the study of historical political economy (HPE). Its goal is to foster conversations across disciplines in the social sciences, namely economics and political science, but also history, sociology, quantitative methods, and public policy. You can visit Broadstreet here: [ VISIT ]
- Publications
- Work in Progress
- Other Writing
- Public Service
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. My research explores the relationships between fiscal policies, party-building, and state-society relations in authoritarian regimes, particularly in China. I am also deeply interested in the roles of elites in the organizational evolution and functioning of authoritarian institutions, such as political parties and legislatures, across both historical and contemporary contexts. I earned my Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University in 2011.
Along with Yuhua Wang (Harvard), we co-organize the Chinese Politics Research in Progress (CPRP). This is a virtual workshop that promotes scholarly research on Chinese politics in comparative politics and international relations. The CPRP virtual workshop is open to the public, and will be held between *12:00-1:00PM* (Central Standard Time) on Fridays every two or three weeks during the regular academic year. Please visit our website for more information.
(512) 232-7257
Department of Government
University of Texas at Austin
Campus Mail Stop: A1800
Austin, TX 78712-1704
Xiaobo Lü
Associate Professor
WORK IN PROGRESS
Taxation and Governance in Contemporary China (with Changdong Zhang) (Under contract with Cambridge Elements in Chinese Economy and Governance )
The Legislative Battlefield: Bureaucratic Influence and Coalition Building in China's National Assemblies (with Mingxing Liu and Dong Zhang) (Under contract with Cambridge Elements in Politics and Society in East Asia )
Mobilized Compliance: How Political Parties Facilitate Wartime Fiscal Extraction.
The Shadow of Social Desirability Bias: Evidence from Reassessing the Sources of Political Trust in China (with Ding Li, Shuang Ma, Wenhui Yang)
Do Procedural Justice and Retributive Justice Enhance Support for Property Tax? Experimental Evidence from China (with Lily Tsai, Minh Trinh, and Ping Zhang)
The Fiscal Impact of Land Resources on Social Con tention: Evid ence from China (with Lynette Ong and Wenhui Yang)
Electronic Auditing, Tax Compliance, and Political Engagement (with Robin Yajie Wang)
Refereed Book
(Forthcoming) Domination and Mobilization: The Rise and Fall of Political Parties in China’s Republican Era (Cambridge University Press)
Refereed Journals
(2024) Disgruntled Cadres: How Tax Reduction Undermines Rural Governance (with Mingxing Liu and Linke Hou) Governance , 37(3): 751-769.
Paper | Online Appendix
(2024) “Do Gains in Political Representation Sweeten Tax Reform in China? It Depends on Who You Ask” (with Jay Kao and Didac Queralt) Political Science Research and Methods , 12(1):146-165.
Paper | Online Appendix | Replication Data
(2020) "Policy Coalition Building in an Authoritarian Legislature: Evidence from China’s National Assemblies (1983–2007)" (with Mingxing Liu and Feiyue Li) Comparative Political Studies , 53(9): 1380-1416
Paper | Online Appendix
(2019) “The Sources of De Facto Power and Education Provision: Understanding Local Government Incentive in China” (with Mingxing Liu) Publius: The Journal of Federalism , 49 (2): 325-51.
(2018) “Does Performance Matter? Evaluating the Institution of Political Selection along the Chinese Administrative Ladder” (with Pierre Landry and Haiyan Duan) Comparative Political Studies , 51(8): 1074 – 1105.
Paper | Online Appendix | Replication Data
(2016) “Self-Centered Inequity Aversion and the Mass Politics of Taxation” (with Kenneth Scheve) Comparative Political Studies , 49 (14): 1965-97.
(2015) “Intergovernmental Transfers and Local Education Provision – Evaluating China’s 8-7 National Plan for Poverty Reduction” China Economics Review , 33: 200-211.
(2014) “Show Me the Money: Interjurisdiction Political Competition and Fiscal Extraction in China” (with Pierre Landry) American Political Science Review , 108(3): 706-722.
(2014) “Social Policy and Regime Legitimacy: The Effects of Education Reform in China” American Political Science Review , 108(2): 423-437.
(2014) “Does Changing Economic Well-being Shape Opinion about Inequality in China?” Studies in Comparative International Development , 49(3): 300-320.
(2013) “Equality of Educational Opportunity and Attitudes toward Income Inequality: Evidence from China” Quarterly Journal of Political Science , 8(3): 271-303.
Paper | Online Appendix | Replication Data
(2012) “Inequity Aversion and the International Distribution of Trade Protection” (with Kenneth Scheve and Matthew J. Slaughter). American Journal of Political Science , 56(3): 638-654.
Refereed Book Chapter
(2015) “China: Ethical Challenges in Comparative Politics Experiments.” In Ethics and Experiments: Problems and Solutions for Social Scientists and Policy Professional s , ed. Scott Desposato. London: Routledge.
Book Review
(2019) Book Review, Daniel Koss. Where the Party Rules: The Rank and File of China’s Communist State . (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), The China Journal , 82 (July): 151-153.
(2017) Book review, Rory Truex. Making autocracy work: representation and responsiveness in modern China . (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016), The China Quarterly , 232 (December): 1118-1119.
(2012) Book review, Andrew B. Kipnis. Governing Educational Desire: Culture, Politics, and Schooling in China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), Comparative Political Studies , 45(5): 667-670.
Graduate-Level
Comparative Political Economy
Undergraduate-Level
Politics in Contemporary China
State Building in China and Taiwan
Chinese Politics & Society in Films & Documentaries
Politics of Development Policies
Institutions and Comparative Political & Economic Development
IMAGES
VIDEO