nus phd political science

Assistant Professor

National university of singapore.

I am an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy , National University of Singapore . My research focuses on business-government relations, bureaucracy, good governance, and authoritarian politics , with a particular interest in China. My work has been published and is forthcoming in the British Journal of Political Science , Journal of Politics , Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization , The China Quarterly , and other journals.

I am the recipient of the Kellogg/Notre Dame Award for Best Comparative Politics Paper from the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association. I earned my PhD in Political Science from Duke University . Prior to Duke, I obtained my bachelor’s degree from Fudan University and completed my MPhil at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology . Before joining NUS, I was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Leitner Program of Political Economy, MacMillan Center, Yale University .

You can contact me via email at [email protected] .

Peer-reviewed Articles

“Subsidies for Sale: Post-government Career Concern, Revolving-Door Channels, and Public Resource Allocation in China." Journal of Politics , 2024. link

• Winner of Kellogg/Notre Dame Award for Best Comparative Politics Paper at 2023 Midwest Political Science Association

“Markets Under Mao: The Persistence of Market Activity in Maoist China." With Adam Frost. The China Quarterly , 2023. link

“The Decline of Factions: The Impact of Purge on Political Appointments in China." With Melanie Manion. British Journal of Political Science , 2023. link

“Public Investment As Downward Benefit Distribution: Theory and Evidence from China’s Public-Private Partnership Programs." With Daniel Z. Li and Qi Zhang. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization , 2023. link

“Judicial Recentralization as Political Control: A Difference-in-Differences Analysis of Judicial Leader Rotation in China." With Zeyuan Wang. Social Science Quarterly , 2023. link

“Connections as Liabilities: The Cost of the Politics-Business Revolving Door in China." British Journal of Political Science , 2022. link

“Within Party Mobility and Economic Performance in Authoritarian Regimes: Evidence from China." With Arthur Zeyang Yu. Party Politics . 2022. link

“The Last Strike: Age, Career Incentives and Taxation in China.” With Arthur Zeyang Yu. Studies in Comparative International Development . 2022. link

“An Introduction to Procedural Rule in China’s Provincial People’s Congress." Chinese Law & Government , Vol.49 No.1, (2017): 1-4. link

Working Papers

“Olson in China: Regional Chamber of Commerce, Political Brokers, and Firm Subsidies." With Shenghua Lu, R&R. link

“A Privilege of the Rich? A Duality of Unequal Government Responsiveness in Urban China." With Jiawei Fu and Haibin Yan, R&R. link

“Favor With Fear: The Distributional Effect of Political Risk on Government Procurement in China." With Songrui Liu. link

Book Project

Red Quid Pro Quo: The Political-Business Revolving Door in China

Scholars contend that in a weak institutional context, firms enter the political marketplace primarily through bribery or by entrepreneurs running for public office. My book project challenges this conventional understanding by arguing that revolving-door channels have become a prevalent means of rent-seeking when within-government career opportunities are rare for public officials and the private sector is profitable. I propose a theoretical framework for understanding the emergence of revolving-door officials in authoritarian regimes and test this framework through a rigorous inquiry into firms in China. The core chapters of this book analyze the pattern, formation, and economic outcomes of hiring revolving-door officials. I show the distortionary impact of post-government career concerns on public resource allocation, a mixed revolving-door recruitment strategy adopted by firms seeking both political power and regulatory expertise, and the salient signaling effect of revolving-door connections on financial investors.

Chinese Revolving-Door Officials Database

The Chinese Revolving-Door Officials Database contains extensive demographic and career information of over 15,000 government officials who serve on the board of all Chinese publicly listed firms since the 2000s. The database is consist of three parts:

• compensation information for revolving-door officials, including salary, allowance, and stock shares;
• standardized career experience information;
• visualization of their political network.

The database is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (administered by American Political Science Association), the Department of Political Science at Duke University and Duke Asian Pacific Studies Institute.

Chinese Public-Private Partnership Database

The Chinese Public-Private Partnership Database provides detailed information of all Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects contracted by various levels of governments in China from 2013. The database includes:

• contract details of public-private partnership projects
• visualization of public-private partnership networks

Political Economy

Business and Politics, Instructor, National University of Singapore & Yale University. Syllabus

Political Economy of China, Instructor, Yale University. Syllabus

Prisoner’s Dilemma and Distributive Justice, Teaching Assistant, Duke University.

Global Corruption, Teaching Assistant, Duke University.

World of Politics, Teaching Assistant, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Introduction to Economics, Teaching Assistant, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Quantative Methods

Probability and Regression*, Lab Instructor and TA, Duke University. Handouts and Code

Quantitative Analysis in Social Science*, Lab Instructor and TA, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Handouts and Code

Data Science

• Unifying Data Science*, Lab Instructor and TA, Duke University. Handouts and Code

* Graduate-level

NUS Political Science

Graduate Conference 2021

The Panellists

Sam Downes is a Masters of Public Administration student at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Previously, he worked in the Cabinet Office amongst other positions in and around British government over the last six years. His research interests include the role of public administration in citizen participation, public sector accountability, comparative public administration and how political theory applies to public administration.

Brian Charles is a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore. He recently graduated from NUS with a Master of Social Sciences in November 2020. His M.A. thesis was a genealogical analysis of the term ‘populism’ as a concept in the academic literature spanning 1890 to 2020. His research interests include political theory, intellectual history, history of ideas, philosophy, sociology of knowledge and political psychology.

Assel Mussagulova is a PhD student at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore pursuing a public policy and global affairs track. Her research focus is on human resource management and organizational behavior in the public sector, bureaucratic institutions, especially in the post-communist context. Previously, Assel worked as a civil servant in the area of HR management in Kazakhstan, and as a research associate at the UNDP Global Centre for Public Service Excellence (GCPSE) in Singapore.

Isaac graduated with a Masters in Asian Studies from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in 2020, and has a Bachelor's in Political Science from the National University of Singapore. His research interests lie in the state-society relations of Southeast Asian countries, the politics of authoritarian regimes, and populism. He currently works as a security specialist at a global security assistance provider.

Soyoung is a PhD student at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University. Her current research interests are Japanese security policy and strategic culture.

Barbora Valockova is a PhD candidate in the Public Policy and Global Affairs Programme of the School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Her research focuses on international political economy, international relations, ASEAN and East Asia. Before pursuing her PhD, she worked as an Asia-Pacific infrastructure analyst and a trainee at the European Commission.

Pradeep is a Masters candidate in the Political Science Department at the National University of Singapore (NUS). His research interests include political psychology, securitization, social theory, and international relations. Currently, he is developing a study that examines how cognitive biases are involved in the formation of public perceptions of security.

Bailey Marsheck is a graduate student at the Yenching Academy of Peking University, where he is currently pursuing an M.A. in China Studies (Politics and International Relations). His research interests lie at the intersection of IR and public opinion, primarily focusing on the U.S.-China relationship. He previous graduated with a B.A. in International Economics from the University of California, San Diego.

Say Jye is an aspiring academic planning to work at the intersection of politics, philosophy, and history. He is presently completing an MSc in Asian Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He graduated with Highest Distinction from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in January 2020, majoring in Political Science with a minor in History.

About the Conference

The NUS Political Science Graduate Conference 2021 seeks to provide a platform for graduate students to present their research on ongoing projects, including theses, and to network. It is an opportunity for aspiring scholars to experience an academic event and to share their work with peers in a supportive and stimulating environment. The conference will be held online.

The conference will be organised around panels composed of 3 to 4 papers. Participants can take part in the capacity of presenters, chairs, and/or discussants in panels. There is no conference or registration fee. Participants are expected to attend the entire conference.

The conference is now seeking submissions of abstracts for papers from all subfields of Political Science. Papers at different stages of progress are welcome.

Format of the conference Papers will be organised around common topics. Each panel will have 1 chair, 3-4 panellists and discussants.

Key dates ​

December 22, 2020: Deadline for abstract submission

February 2, 2021: Deadline to submit papers

February 23, 2021: NUS Political Science Graduate Conference 2021

Submission of abstracts

Submissions should include a 400-word abstract, four keywords, and an academic CV.

We look forward to your submission.

For queries, please check out our FAQs or contact us .

Abstract Submission

Deadline for abstract submission: December 22, 2020 Notification for the outcome of submission: Early January, 2021 Deadline for paper submission: February 9, 2021

Your content has been submitted

Get in Touch 

Organisers .

The conference is run independently by the organisers, with the support of the NUS Department of Political Science.

Jesslene Lee

Nitha arumugam.

Publicity Director

Ang Jing Wei

Communications Director

©2020 NUS Political Science Graduate Conference 2020

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[Uni] NUS Political Science / Political science at the Uni Level

Hi! I am interested in pursuing political science at NUS CHS and I have some questions.

What is the curriculum like for NUS Political Science? Is there lot of readings and essay writing?

I am very interested in the different styles of governance and different leaders throughout history. Is NUS political science for me?

Lastly, what are the job prospects for Political Science students? What work could one be doing?

Thanks! For those who are studying uni Political Science, do let me know your experience! It does not necessarily have to be from NUS.

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