Research

Working Papers

• Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and Trade Policy: A Quantitative Analysis (draft coming soon)
  with Haichao Fan, Yuan Mei, and Huanhuan Wang
  Abstract

  We assess the environmental and economic impacts of the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). We develop a multi-country, multi-sector general equilibrium model that incorporates input–output linkages, carbon supply chains, and global emission externalities. Our results show that unilateral CBAM modestly reduces global emissions due to indirect carbon leakage through energy markets, while broader sectoral coverage weakens effectiveness by further diluting industrial reallocation incentives. Global welfare improves marginally when environmental benefits are accounted for. Strategic carbon policy adjustments under a non-cooperative Nash equilibrium enhance effectiveness by mitigating both free riding and indirect leakage. Multilateral decarbonization negotiations yield substantial gains, with CBAM functioning as a powerful enforcement device that raises the cost of disagreement and fosters deeper global climate cooperation.

  
  

• Investing in a Mobile Asset: Higher Education, Graduate Mobility, and Underinvestment (draft coming soon)
  with Naiyuan Hu, Lin Ma, and Ben Zou
  Abstract

  Government decisions on higher-education policy shape human capital formation, spatial inequality, and long-run economic development. We develop a dynamic spatial life-cycle general equilibrium model in which individuals endogenously choose education and migration, while local governments set admission quotas and allocate education budgets. The model captures a quantity-quality trade-off and strategic interactions across regions arising from graduate mobility. Quantified to the context of China, our counterfactuals show that, given initially scarce capacity, expanding college seats delivered larger welfare and human capital gains than a quality-focused alternative. Yet China's observed expansion path remains inefficient relative to a social planner benchmark, with substantial welfare losses and heightened spatial inequality. Allowing provinces to act strategically improves welfare but inefficiency persists due to free-riding by attractive destinations and incomplete-contract incentives faced by education providers. Finally, we show that optimal place-based policies depend on development stage: advanced provinces benefit from front-loaded education investment, while lagging provinces optimally back-load spending.

  
  

• Tariffs as Bargaining Chips: A Quantitative Analysis of US-China Trade War
  with Naiyuan Hu and Yuan Mei
  Abstract

  Non-cooperative tariffs change outside options and thus affect welfare outcomes in potential tariff negotiations. We focus on the U.S.–China trade war from 2018 through 2019 and examine whether such tariffs can serve as leverage to improve U.S. post-negotiation welfare. With a multi-country, multi-sector quantitative trade model, we simulate negotiations from two starting points: the 2017 baseline and the 2019 trade-war equilibrium. Our results show that, across reasonable estimates of U.S. bargaining power, imposing trade-war tariffs before the negotiations consistently enhances U.S. post-negotiation welfare.

  
  

Selected Work in Progress

• Relaxation of Internal Migration Restrictions and Labor Market Sorting, with Yutao Wang

• Love Panda, Love China: The Panda Effect on International Trade, with Pao-Li Chang, Wei Jin, Dingfan Kang, and Angdi Lu
  

Research Experience

• Research Assistant to Prof. Lin Ma, Singapore Management University, 2024
• Research Assistant to Prof. Christine Ho, Singapore Management University, 2023
• Research Assistant to Prof. Pao-Li Chang, Singapore Management University, 2023-2025
• Research Assistant to Prof. Yuan Mei, Singapore Management University, 2022-2024