“A good read for anyone who wants to understand what actually determines whether a
developing economy will succeed.”—Bill Gates,“Top 5 Books of the Year” An Economist …

Elites often use social policies to garner political support and ensure regime survival, but
social policies are not a silver bullet. Using two waves of Chinese national surveys, I find that …

This review essay surveys the literature that explains China's poverty reduction progress
since the late 1970s. It examines three dominant explanations: geographic conditions …

The lack of significant improvement in people's health status and other mounting health
challenges in China raise a puzzling question about the country's internal transition: why did …

Why do authoritarian regimes try to improve the quality of their governance? In the absence
of democratic institutions to monitor, reward and punish their performance, authoritarian …

While China's ruling Communist Party has benefited from a reservoir of political trust
engendered by more than three decades of rapid economic growth, it is confronted with …

Using an instrumental variable approach, we analyze survey data to untangle the
relationship between social and political trust in contemporary China. We find strong …

Mobilizing for Development tackles the question of how countries achieve rural development
and offers a new way of thinking about East Asia's political economy that challenges the …

Context: Over the last two decades a growing body of research has shown that authoritarian
regimes are trying to increase their legitimacy by providing public goods. But there has so far …

A 'dual-power structure'governs the Chinese countryside. Branch committees of the Chinese
Communist Party, traditionally the centers of power in the villages, increasingly share their …