Selected Publications

“Digital Distractions with Peer Influence: The Impact of Mobile App Usage on Academic and Labor Market Outcomes” (with Panle Barwick, Siyu Chen, and Chao Fu), Forthcoming, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb 2026.

“Employee Output Response to Stock Market Wealth Shocks” (with Wenlan Qian, Xiong A. Wei, and Xin Zou), Journal of Financial Economics, 2022(146), 779-796.

“COVID-19 Pandemic and Unemployment: Evidence from Mobile Phone Data in China” (with Panle Barwick Jia, Yongheng Deng, Xinfei Huang, and Shanjun Li), Journal of Urban Economics, 2023(135), 103543, lead article.

“Too Hot to Handle: The Effects of High Temperatures during Pregnancy on Adult Welfare Outcomes” (with Zihan Hu), Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2019(94), 236-253.

“Environmental Regulation as a Double-edged Sword for Housing Markets: Evidence from the NOx Budget Trading Program” (with Sumit Agarwal and Yongheng Deng), Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2019(96), 286-309.

Associations between stock market fluctuations and stress-related emergency room visits in China (with Sumit Agarwal, Siyu Chen, Haonan He, and Xinfei Huang), Nature: Mental Health, 2024(8), 909-915.

“Teacher Characteristics and Student Performance: Evidence from Random Teacher-Student Assignments in China” (with Wei Huang, Yinghao Pan, and Jinyang Ren), Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2023(214), 747-781.

Social Undermining as a Dark Side of Symbolic Awards: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design (with Runjing Lu), Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2022(173), 104184.

Working papers

Affirmative Action and Long-Term Economic Disparities (with Yi Chen, Chao Fu, Hongbin Li, and Siyan Tang).

Are Investment Skills Educatable? (with Sumit Agarwal, Siyu Chen, Yi Chen, Hongbin Li).

Non-linear Pay, Efforts, and Human Capital Accumulation (with Siyu Chen, Richard Freeman, and Huang Wei).

Digital‑Footprint Evidence of Insider Information Propagation in Social Networks (with Sumit Agarwal, Siyu Chen, Xinfei Huang).

Technology, Parenting, and the Rich-Poor Educational Gap: A Digital Footprint Approach (with Yongheng Deng, Xinfei Huang, Shang-Jin Wei).

Adaptation to Climate Change and Mortgage Prepayment (with Yongheng Deng, Congyan Han, and Tim Riddiough).

College Education and Demand for Risky Assets: Evidence from College Expansion Policy in China (with Xiangyuan Ding, Wei Huang, Jinyang Ren, and Xiao Xiao).

Beyond the Cutoff: Trade-offs and Long-term Outcomes of Marginal Admissions to Elite Universities (with Siyu Chen, Yi Chen, Hongbin Li, and Bin Xie).

Typhoons (with Siyu Chen, Jinyang Ren, and Siyan Tang).

School Closure and Parental Productivity (with Jinyang Ren and Wei Huang).

Mobile Game Ban and Student Performance (with Xinfei Huang, Shuhua Ma, and Shangyan Zhong)

Promotion Incentives and Conformity in Corporate Philanthropy (with Cyndi Zhang, Weiwen Li, Heli Wang, and Yanling Lian)