My research is composed of two parts. First, using both contemporary data and historical data, I seek to understand the education decisions and labor supply of women and how policy changes and social norms shape these decisions. Second, I analyze the historical roots of modernization in developing countries, for example, infrastructure construction under colonial rule.
Coeducation, Female Human Capital, and the Evolution of Gender Norms (with Bin Huang) New draft coming out soon!
Abstract: This paper study how the inclusion of women in higher education change male students' gender attitudes and generates spillover effects on female human capital accumulation through male students' social networks. In 1920, Peking University implemented a coeducation reform, becoming the first Chinese university to admit women. We focus on the indirect effect of the reform through male students and compare female educational outcomes in the home counties of first-exposed and last-non-exposed male graduates. Our quasi-experimental analyses show that there is an 13.18 percentage point higher probability of having female university students in the exposed counties compared with non-exposed counties. The main mechanism is the spread of more progressive gender norms through the personal networks of male students, reflected by a positive shift in male students' gender attitudes and an increase in university enrollment predominantly among female students from the same clan. Our findings highlight the importance of exposure to gender diversity in altering gender attitudes and demonstrate how personal networks amplify the diffusion of these changes and improve real economic outcomes. However, the spillover did not increase the mass schooling of girls, as female enrollment in primary schools was unaffected, suggesting the limited capacity of elites to shape broader social change.
Presented at: Zurich Development Seminar '22*, Warwirk CAGE-AMES Workshop '23, LSE Chinese Economic and Social History Workshop '23, Economic History Society Annual Conference '23, Northwestern Economic History Lunch '23*, Warwick CAGE Summer School '23, LSE Graduate Economic History Seminar '23, Meeting of the Society of Economics of the Household '24, NUS Applied Economics Student Workshop '24, International Symposium on Quantitative History '24, ACES Political Economy Summer School '24, EHS PhD Thesis Workshop '24, ASREC Europe Conference '24, Tübingen Econ Hist Winter School '24*, NEUDC '24, Oxford-Warwick-LSE Workshop in Economic History '24, Nick Crafts Memorial Conference '24, Cambridge Economic and Social History Workshop '24, EHS Residential Training Course '24, Asian Historical Economics Conference '24, HEDG 14th Workshop '25, Gender Economics Workshop at ENS de Lyon '25, Second City History and Economics Meeting '25, RES 2025 Annual Conference '25*, EEA Congress 2025 (forthcoming), EHA 2025 Annual Conference (forthcoming).
* co-author presentations
Female Human Capital Investment with Limited Returns (with Negar Ziaeian)
The Canals Not Built (with James Fenske and Bishnupriya Gupta)