In the second quarter of 2026, faculty and students from the School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, achieved fruitful academic outputs, with 22 papers published in well-known economic journals at home and abroad. Among them, 10 papers appeared in international economics journals of Category II and above; four papers were published in domestic authoritative journals. The main information and abstracts of these academic achievements are presented below.
Associate Professor Weixiang Pan from the Department of Labor Economics co-authored the paper College networks: The importance of employer connections, which was officially published in Journal of Labor Economics, a top-tier international economics journal.
College Networks: The importance of employer connections
Journal of Labor Economics
Volume 44, April 2026
We provide the first evidence that the employers of network contacts from college can influence job search success. In contrast to the peer effects literature that emphasizes peer characteristics, we examine how the hiring rate of in-network firms affects reemployment probabilities. To avoid endogeneity from voluntary transitions, we focus on individuals who experience mass layoffs. Using administrative data and a cross-cohort design, we find that network connections with actively hiring employers increase the reemployment rate. This result is driven by reemployment at contacts’ firms. These results suggest that college can improve employment outcomes beyond improved human capital and signaling.
Tenured Associate Professor Lei Qiao from the Department of Microeconomics co-authored the paper Localized perfection, officially published in Journal of Economic Theory, a top-tier international economics journal.
Localized perfection
Journal of Economic Theory
Volume 235, June 2026
Perfect equilibrium and its refinements are widely studied and typically rely on full-support perturbations. We introduce a δ-localized notion of perfection for games with a continuum of players. It confines perturbations within a δ-neighborhood of the underlying action distribution and eliminates undesirable equilibria from a local perspective. We establish the existence of a pure strategy δ-localized perfect equilibrium and show that it is equivalent to δ-admissible Nash equilibrium. We also study limit versions of δ-localized perfection. Illustrative applications to large routing games and crowd saturation games are presented.
Professor Chen Yuanyuan from the Department of Labor Economics co-authored the paper What doesn’t kill you makes you shorter: The effect of prenatal air pollution on height in adulthood, officially published in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, an international Category II economics journal.
What doesn’t kill you makes you shorter: The effect of prenatal air pollution on height in adulthood
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
Volume 248, August 2026
This study investigates the causal effect of prenatal air pollution on height in adulthood. We employ a two-stage least squares model, using thermal inversions as an instrumental variable for identification. Leveraging data from a nationally representative sample in China, the results show that an increase of 1 μg/m³ in PM2.5 concentrations during gestation reduces height in adulthood by 0.4 cm and normalized height scores by 0.07 standard deviations. These adverse effects on height are primarily driven by exposure to air pollution during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy. Furthermore, the results show that exposure to air pollution after birth does not significantly impact adult height. The mechanism analysis indicates that income reductions that are associated with air pollution are unlikely to be the main pathway through which prenatal air pollution affects long-term height outcomes. Instead, disruptions to maternal health during pregnancy appear to be the dominant mechanism.
Assistant Professor Danyan Zha from the Department of Labor Economics co-authored the paper Traditional beliefs matter in the marriage market: Evidence from zodiac compatibility in China, published online in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, an international Category II economics journal.
Traditional beliefs matter in the marriage market: Evidence from zodiac compatibility in China
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
Volume 246, June 2026
We examine the impact of traditional beliefs on spousal matching in China, focusing on the role of the zodiac compatibility system, which predicts a couple’s potential compatibility into three types: good, bad, and neutral. Using observational data from the population census, we document that couples with bad compatibility are significantly less prevalent than those with neutral compatibility, while good compatibility has an insignificant positive effect. To shed light on the mechanism, we use an incentivized online survey experiment to elicit individual-level evaluations of potential matches based on zodiac compatibility, where the findings are consistent with the observational analysis. Lastly, we also examine the cost of the culture, where the results show that individuals facing a "worse" marriage market regarding zodiac compatibility are more likely to remain single.
Assistant Professor Danyan Zha from the Department of Labor Economics co-authored the paper From sons to daughters: International marriage migration and sex imbalances at birth, officially published in Journal of Population Economics, an international Category II economics journal.
From sons to daughters: International marriage migration and sex imbalances at birth
Journal of Population Economics
Volume 39, May 2026
This paper studies how international marriage migration affects sex ratios at birth in Vietnam. Leveraging a unique context in which the opportunity for Vietnamese women to migrate to wealthier East Asian countries increased the economic benefits of having daughters, we employ a difference-in-differences approach using a demand-driven visa processing change from Taiwan to examine whether Vietnamese households became less likely to have sons. We find a significant reduction in the likelihood of male births in affected provinces, with two fewer boys per hundred girls. We observe a decline for both first- and second-born children, with a stronger effect for the second-born when the first-born is a girl. These findings are consistent with a model incorporating both lexicographic (“at least one son”) and standard son preferences and are inconsistent with either preference alone. This highlights the nuanced role of household preferences in shaping sex selection. Overall, our results underscore the potential of policies that enhance daughters’ economic value to address gender imbalances at birth.
Assistant Professor Xuan Zhao from the Department of Economic History published the paper Early modern european and chinese political economy, and the great divergence in History of Political Economy, an international Category II economics journal.
Early modern european and chinese political economy, and the great divergenceHistory of Political
Economy
Volume 58, June 2026
This article studies the comparison between mercantilism and orthodox Confucianism, two kinds of political economy which respectively dominated many important European countries and China in the early modern period. This article finds that mercantilism was industrialistic, proluxury, and pro-innovation, whereas orthodox Confucianism was physiocratic, antiluxury, and anti-innovation. Interpreting such distinction with the modern theories of increasing and decreasing returns, this article finds that mercantilism advocated an increasing-return strategy of economic development, but orthodox Confucianism insisted upon the economic path of decreasing returns. This article believes that such distinction can be added as a parameter to the discussion about the Great Divergence, because, as the Great Divergence was driven by the divergence between the behaviors of early modern European and Chinese states, this article presents that such divergence between the behaviors of states happened in the context of the divergence between the political economy that guided the behaviors of states.
Associate Professor Yaohua Li and doctoral candidate Yuhan Xiao from the Department of Economic History co-authored the paper Price discovery and long-distance market integration: Evidence from the Republican Chinese Cotton Goods Exchange, officially published in Explorations in Economic History, an international Category II economics journal.
Price discovery and long-distance market integration: Evidence from the Republican Chinese Cotton Goods Exchange
Explorations in Economic History
Volume 101, July 2026
Market integration is vital for economic development; its determinants have been extensively documented in the literature. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the role of economic organizations. This paper seeks to fill this gap by investigating the role of futures exchanges in Republican China. Using manually collected primary data, we employ a continuous difference-in-differences approach to analyze the impact of the Chinese Cotton Goods Exchange on long-distance market integration. We find that, following the exchange's establishment in 1921, geographically distant cities experienced a stronger increase in market integration with Shanghai than nearby cities. Regarding the underlying mechanism, we show that the price-discovery function of the futures exchange promoted long-distance market integration by centralizing markets and reducing price uncertainty.
Professor Zhe Yang from the Department of Microeconomics published the paper A unified framework for equilibrium existence in strategic-form games in Operations Research Letters, an international Category II economics journal.
A unified framework for equilibrium existence in strategic-form games
Operations Research Letters
Volume 66, May 2026
This paper proposes a unified framework for equilibrium existence in strategic-form games. Using the unified method, we prove several noncooperative and cooperative equilibrium existence theorems in strategic-form games with infinite-dimensional strategy spaces, by aid of equilibrium existence theorems with finite-dimensional strategy spaces. The novel proof technique is the principal contribution rather than existence results.
Professor Zhang Zhengyu from the Department of Econometrics, together with doctoral candidates Haowen Chen and Lina Shao, co-authored the paper Growth with Improved Distribution: A New Framework for Testing the Common Prosperity Effects of Policies, officially published in Economic Research Journal, a domestic Class A authoritative journal.
Growth with Improved Distribution: A New Framework for Testing the Common Prosperity Effects of Policies
Economic Research Journal
Issue 4, 2026
Common prosperity is an important feature of Chinese modernization. How to improve the welfare of low-income groups while promoting economic growth has become one of the core issues attracting policy attention. Focusing on the common prosperity effects of new infrastructure construction, this paper proposes a policy evaluation framework centered on the tail average treatment effect. The framework directly measures policy impacts on individuals at the tail of the income distribution, so that both the growth effect and redistribution effect of a policy can be examined within a unified framework, and potential paths for policy optimization can be derived. The results show that new infrastructure construction significantly raises residents’ overall income and generates more prominent income gains for low-income groups, reflecting its dual function of boosting economic development and improving income distribution. Tests by income source indicate that the income growth for low-income populations and income gap reduction mainly operate through wage income. Counterfactual analysis further suggests that accelerating new infrastructure construction delivers stronger income growth for low-income groups in regions dominated by the real economy, which aligns digital-real integration with the goal of common prosperity. The evaluation framework for common prosperity effects proposed in this paper represents an effort to build policy evaluation econometrics with Chinese characteristics.
Professor Chen Yuanyuan and Ph.D. graduate Yueqing Zou from the Department of Labor Economics co-authored the paper Impacts of Artificial Intelligence Development on Labor Mobility, officially published in Chinese Journal of Population Science, a domestic Class B authoritative journal.
Impacts of Artificial Intelligence Development on Labor Mobility
Chinese Journal of Population Science
Vol. 40, No. 2, 2026
The rapid development of artificial intelligence is profoundly reshaping the spatial distribution of the labor force. Based on microdata from the 7th National Population Census in 2020 and the 1% National Population Sample Survey in 2015, this paper explores the impacts and underlying mechanisms of AI on labor mobility from both macro-regional and micro-individual perspectives, with a special focus on skill heterogeneity. The study finds that AI development generates an overall “siphon-lock-in” effect on labor mobility. At the macro level, AI raises the in-migration rate of labor; at the micro level, it increases the probability of in-migration and reduces the out-migration probability of migrant workers. The effect of AI on labor mobility across education levels follows a U-shaped pattern: AI exerts a stronger pull on highly educated and less educated workers than on workers with medium educational attainment. Mechanism analysis shows that AI attracts in-migration and suppresses out-migration by expanding employment opportunities for migrant workers. The U-shaped pattern stems from employment polarization triggered by AI: AI facilitates migrant employment in high-skill knowledge-intensive industries and low-skill non-routine service industries, while reducing their employment in routine task-intensive industries dominated by medium skills such as manufacturing and mining. This paper reveals the structural impacts of AI in its early stage on labor mobility. It provides empirical evidence for understanding labor mobility patterns under initial AI shocks, optimizing the allocation of labor factors and advancing coordinated regional development.
The School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, consistently regards the enhancement of research and innovation capacity as a core driving force for disciplinary development. Following the construction standards for first-class disciplines, faculty members make full use of resources and experience accumulated through years of educational reform. Adhering to the academic orientation rooted in China’s realities with a global vision, they keep advancing research on frontier topics and lay a solid foundation for the comprehensive improvement of the school’s academic competitiveness and disciplinary development.
