On the 2026-2027 Job Market
Postdoctoral Fellow
I am an empirical economist and currently a postdoc at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. I work on Development Economics, Political Economy, and Economic History.
My job market paper studies how son preference spreads across groups and persists across generations. My other work examines how information and economic change shape political preferences and economic behavior.
Prior to Northwestern University, I received my PhD in Economics in 2025 and MA in Economics from the Toulouse School of Economics. I also hold a BBA in Economics from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.
The Transmission of Son Preference
This paper examines how culturally rooted son preference contributes to missing women. I exploit the quasi-random settlement of mainland Chinese migrants in Taiwan and measure their cultural backgrounds using ancestor worship in their places of origin. Local families exposed to migrants from origins with stronger ancestor worship are more likely to continue childbearing without a son and, after the Legalization of Abortion in 1985, to select sons at higher birth orders. Among second-generation migrants, sex selection is associated not only with the ancestor worship of their fathers’ places of origin but also with those of other migrant groups in their communities. The evidence shows how a preference for sons is sustained across generations and spreads beyond the families that pass it down, contributing to missing women.