My primary focus is institutional economics. Within this field, some of my research is contextualized by China's reform and opening-up period, a time of rapid institutional transformation. Utilizing manually digitized datasets and restricted administrative datasets, I've been able to conduct exploratory analyses on these topics. In organizational and behavioral economics, my approach primarily involves randomized experiments to examine how various information interventions influence individuals' internal cognitions or shape the performance of government departments.
Tang, L., & Xu, W. (2025). Patronage and pollution. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 130, 103115.
Patronage network has varying effects based on different promotional incentives. Our study explores these dynamics using China’s pollution emissions as a backdrop. We discover that integrating environmental protection into performance evaluations transforms patronage from increasing to reducing pollution. However, this positive shift in environmental impact occurs at the expense of economic growth. Our findings illuminate the significant effectiveness of China’s pollution control and demonstrate how formal institutions shape the results of informal systems.
Awards: Best Paper Award at the 9th Xiangzhang Economics English Forum (3000 RMB); Independent Knowledge System and Major National Service Project, School of Applied Economics, Renmin University of China (30,000 RMB).
Presented: Ninth Camphor Economics English Forum, the Sixth Chinese Econometricians Forum, the 46th Camphor Economics Seminar, the Third NCER-CCER Chinese Economic Conference, and The 10th International Conference on The Chinese Economy.
[1]Double Standards in Family and Workplace (With Qiong Zhang)
Presented: PKU Seminar; THU Seminar; the 4th NCER-CCER Chinese Economic Conference; 2025 Chinese Economists Society (CES) China Annual Conference
[2] Independent Organization, Technocratic Bureaucrats and Effective Governance (With Qiong Zhang)
Presented: SJTU; TSU; PKU; SYSU
[3]State Retreat: Decollectivization Land Reform and Fertility Transition (With Wenli Xu) Revision Requested by Journal of Population Economics
Presented: School of Economics PKU Institute for Global Health and Development(1020th Workshop, Peking University School of Economics); 2024 Spring Meeting of the Young and Mid-Career Scholars Forum Schedule; The 32nd Xiangzhang Economics Circle Seminar (Guangzhou); 2024 Chinese Economists Society (CES) China Annual Conference
Tang, Lianzhou and Xu, Wenli, State Retreat: Decollectivization Land Reform And Fertility Transition (December 09, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5286176 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5286176
[4]Institutional Brahmins (With Qiong Zhang)
I will promptly add the paper title with the baseline results to this section.
[1]Human Capital Expansion and Corporate Pollution Control (in Chinese)
Excellent Graduation Thesis, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences(2022)
[2]Trump's Trade Protection Policies and Firm Productivity (in Chinese)
10th New Era Chinese Young Economists Forum, Peking University (2021)
[3]Unexpected Investment Boost: A Climate Stability Perspective
Wu, J., Xia, X., Chen, B., & Tang, L. (2025). Unexpected investment boost: a climate stability perspective. Applied Economics, 1-15.
[4]Plugging in for Cities
Xia, X., Wu, J., Tang, L., Chen, B., & Zheng, Y. (2025). Plugging in for cities: the impact of power infrastructure on urban agglomeration. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12(1), 1-14.
[5]Political Elite Networks and Local Labor Income Share
Presented: Academic Seminar on Chinese-Style Modernization(Guangzhou University) ; 2023 Chinese Economists Society (CES) China Annual Conference