Research

Working Papers

The Past is Not Even Past: Boxer Rebellion and Contemporary Nationalism in China

We investigate the mechanisms of historical persistence by examining how past shocks cast long shadows on contemporary nationalism. Drawing on late-Qing local gazetteers documenting the Boxer Rebellion, we construct a novel measure of local historical memory and use natural disasters in 1898–1900 as an instrument. We also develop a simple dynamic model in which historical memory shapes government nationalism through social pressure while exerting different effects on individual attitudes. Empirically, we find that stronger-memory areas exhibit more nationalist rhetoric in government reports, more patriotic campaigns, and more frequent collective actions. At the individual level, residents are less receptive to state-led nationalist mobilization yet more inclined to channel discontent through collective protest. The memory–nationalism nexus further deters foreign investment and constrains state-owned enterprises’ overseas expansion. Our findings highlight historical memory as a persistent force shaping governance strategies and the political economy of nationalism.

How the Civil Wars Won? The Persistent Effects of Ming-Qing Social Conflicts

We demonstrate that pre-modern social conflicts, particularly peasant uprisings, can contribute to explaining the development patterns of human capital investment in contemporary China. We document a strong positive correlation between the incidence of peasant uprisings during the Ming-Qing period and current local human capital investment. By employing solar eclipses as an exogenous variation to instrument historical social conflicts, we establish that this relationship is causal. Combining contemporary survey data at the individual and family levels, we find that prefectures with more frequent social conflicts tend to exhibit stronger public cohesion and a richer educational tradition, leading individuals and families to have a higher demand for education.

Work in Progress

The Great Depression and Entry into Scientific Careers

This project examines whether local exposure to economic distress during the Great Depression affected entry into scientific careers in the United States.