Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica

My research interests mainly cover two fields in Political Science: trade politics and democratization. The core argument in my past research is that dictators can utilize trade policies to prolong their political survival. Specifically, they can either rely on protectionism to consolidate the support of special interests groups or implement trade liberalization to neutralize threats of democratization. I find that in some cases, especially in labor-abundant dictatorships, economic globalization inhibits democratization

My current research agenda is to keep investigating the political economy of dictatorships. Specifically, I aim to develop a theory on how the varieties of authoritarianism determine policy choices and outcomes under dictatorships, including economic openness, government transparency, quality of governance, and media freedom. I expect that this research agenda will not only contribute to studies on authoritarian politics, but also advance our understanding about the authoritarian resilience against democratization in China and other East Asian dictatorships.