Research

PUBLICATIONS

1. Ang, Yuen Yuen, Nan Jia, Bo Yang, and Kenneth G. Huang. "China's Low-Productivity Innovation Drive: Evidence from Patents Production.'' Comparative Political Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140231209960

Abstract: Can China catch-up with the United States technologically by mobilizing its bureaucracy and assigning ambitious targets to local governments? We analyzed an original dataset of 4.6 million patents filed in China from 1990 through 2014 and paired this with a new, rigorous measure of patent novelty that approximates the quality of innovation. In 2006, China’s central government launched a national campaign to promote indigenous innovation and introduced bureaucratic targets for patents. Our analysis finds evidence that these targets, combined with political competition, pushed local governments to “game the numbers” by channeling relatively more effort toward boosting non-novel—possibly junk—patents over novel patents. Nationally, this is reflected in a surge of aggregate patents paired with a falling ratio of novel patents. China’s innovation drive is susceptible to manipulation and waste—it is enormous in scale but low in productivity.

2. Chen, Shuo, Xun Yan, and Bo Yang. "Move to Success? Headquarters Relocation, Political Favoritism, and Corporate Performance." Journal of Corporate Finance 64 (2020): 101698. (Authors listed alphabetically)

Abstract: This study documents an unexplored corporate rent-seeking phenomenon in non-representative regimes—relocating headquarters (HQ) to the political center. Focusing on China, we find that firms that relocate their HQs to Beijing (the political center) enjoy increased political favors, but those that move to Shanghai or Shenzhen (the country's two main economic centers) do not. Although both groups of movers experience improved profitability, their sustainable growth paths diverge after relocating. Firm productivity and innovation worsen after relocating to Beijing, but improve after moving to Shanghai or Shenzhen. Overall, these findings support the argument that political favoritism benefits firms' profitability but impairs their productivity and innovation.

 WORKING PAPERS

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1. "An Integrated Strategy of Addressing Protectionism: Evidence from the United States–China Trade War"

(2nd round Revise and Resubmit at Strategic Management Journal)

2. "Leading from a Rut? Managerial Career Incentives and Persistence in Resource Allocation" with Nan Jia, Weiguo Zhong, and Anni Chen.

(1st round Revise and Resubmit at Strategic Management Journal)

3. "Controversial Corporate Political Activities and Shareholder Activism: A Natural Experiment of the U.S. Capitol Riot" with Nan Jia.  

(1st round Revise and Resubmit at Organization Science)

4. "Supply Chain Strategy under Geopolitical Rivalry: The Role of Firms’ Partisan Positioning and Economic Dependency" with Jinyuan Song, Yifan Wei, and Jing Li. 

(1st round Revise and Resubmit at the Journal of International Business Studies)

5. "Cloaked Opposition: Firms' Partisan Identity and Covert Corporate Political Activities"

WORK IN PROGRESS

1. FDI and Innovation

2. Corporate Political Connection and Value Capture in Buyer-Supplier Relationships

3. Lobbying on Innovation

4. Trade Association Lobbying in the United States: 1998–2022

5. Political Connection and Natural Disasters