Book

• Ruixue Jia, Hongbin Li and Claire Cousineau. 2025. The Highest Exam: How the Gaokao Shapes China. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

       
Research Articles

• Ruixue Jia and James Kung. "The Culture and Institutions of Confucianism." Handbook of Culture and Economic Behavior, draft 

 

• Ruixue Jia, Xiao Ma and Victoria Xie. "Expecting Floods: Firm Entry, Employment, and Aggregate Implication." American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, forthcoming. draft 

 

• Bai, Chong-en, Ruixue Jia, Hongbin Li, and Xin Wang. 2025. “Entrepreneurial Reluctance: Talent and Firm Creation in China.”  Economic Journal, Vol. 135(667): 964-981. draft​ Copy here.    ​​

          — VoxChina - Gaokao, Ability, and Occupation Choice
          — Startups or the State: Where Does China Allocate Its Top Talent? 

• Jia, Ruixue,  Margaret E. Roberts, Ye Wang and Eddie Yang. ​ ​2024. “The Impact of U.S.-China Tensions on U.S. Science: Evidence from the NIH Investigations.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 121(19). draft​ Copy here.  

          — Data and Code
​          — CSIS: How U.S.-China Tensions Have Hurt American Science

• Jia, Ruixue,  Gerard Roland and Yang Xie. 2024. ​ “A Theory of Power Structure and Institutional Compatibility: China vs. Europe Revisited.” Journal of the European Economic Association, Vol. 22(3): 1275–1318. draft.  ​         ​​

          — slides
          — Institutions and power structure: Imperial China and feudal Europe compared | CEPR
​​

• Jia, Ruixue. ​ 2024.  “Pollution for Promotion.” Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization. draft

 

• Jia, Ruixue, Hongbin Li and Lingsheng Meng. 2024. “Elite College Education and Social Mobility in China.” Economic Development and Cultural Change, forthcoming. draft. (previously circulated as “Can Elite College Education Change One's Fate in China?”) ​​

 

• Bai, Ying, Ruixue Jia and Jiaojiao Yang. 2023. “Web of Power: How Elite Networks Shaped War and Politics in China.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 138(2): 1067-1108. draft ​                       

​          — Data and Code
​​

• Bai, Ying and Ruixue Jia. 2023. “The Economic Consequences of Political Hierarchy: Evidence from Regime Changes in China, AD1000-2000.”   Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 105(3): 626-645. draft​     

          — Data and Code
          — Masahiko Aoki Award 2021
          — Distinguished CESifo Research Affiliate Award, 2018, summary

•  Greenstone, Michael, Guojun He, Ruixue Jia and Tong Liu. 2022. “Can Technology Solve the Principal-Agent Problem? Evidence from China's War on Air Pollution.”  American Economic Review: Insights, vol. 4(1): 54-70. draft​.           

          — VoxDev: Technology as a tool for governance
          — Data and Code
          — Best Paper Award for Sustainable Paths Toward Carbon Neutrality by CICC Global Institute (CGI), 2021

• Jia, Ruixue, Xiaohuan Lan and Gerard Padró I Miquel. 2021. “Doing Business in China: Parental Background and Government Intervention Determine Who Owns Businesses.” Journal of Development Economics, vol. 151. draft.​  

 

• Jia, Ruixue and Hongbin Li. 2021. “Just Above the Exam Cutoff Score: Elite College Admission and Wages in China.” Journal of Public Economics, vol. 196​​  draft             

          — The Economist, Bloomberg, Times Higher Education

• Jia, Ruixue and Torsten Persson. 2021. “Choosing Ethnicity: The Interplay between Individual and Social Motives.” Journal of the European Economic Association, vol. 19 (2): 1203-1248.  draft.  ​           

          — Data and Code

• Hong Cheng, Ruixue Jia, Dandan Li, and Hongbin Li. 2019. “The Rise of Robots in China.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 33 (2): 71-88. draft

​          — AEA's Chart of the Week: China's embrace of robots​​
          — LSE Business Review: Understanding China's robot phenomenon​
​

• Jia, Ruixue, Huihua Nie and Wei Xiao. 2019. “Power and Publications in Chinese Academia.” Journal of Comparative Economics, vol. 47(4): 792-805. draft​            

          — Elephant in the lab, LSE Blog, University World News

• Jia, Ruixue and Hyejin Ku. 2019. “Is China's Pollution the Culprit for the Choking of South Korea? Evidence from the Asian Dust.” Economic Journal, vol. 129 (624): 3154-3188. draft ​         

         — Media briefing
​

• Jia, Ruixue and Huihua Nie. 2017. “Decentralization, Collusion and Coalmine Deaths.” Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 99 (1), 105-118. draf

​          —  Data and Code  
​

• Bai, Ying and Ruixue Jia. 2016. “Elite Recruitment and Political Stability: The Impact of the Abolition of China's Civil Service Exam.” Econometrica, vol. 84 (2), 677–733 draft               

         — Data and Code, Visualization
​

• Jia, Ruixue, Masa Kudamatsu and David Seim. 2015. “Political Selection in China: Complementary Roles of Connections and Performance.” Journal of the European Economic Association, vol. 13 (4), 631-668. draft            

         — VoxEU column: Who becomes a top politician in China?
         — Data and Code

• Jia, Ruixue. 2014. “Weather Shocks, Sweet Potatoes and Peasant Revolts in Historical China.” Economic Journal, vol. 124 (575), 92-118. draft ​ ​​

 

• Jia, Ruixue 2014. “The Legacies of Forced Freedom: China's Treaty Ports.” Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 96 (4),  596-608. draft  

​         — Data and Code
​

• Jia, Ruixue and Pinghan Liang. 2012. “Decentralization and Military Coups.”  in Manas Chatterji (ed.) 2012, Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, Vol. 20, 149-170. ​ a new version with empirical evidence ​

​
Book Reviews

• Jia, Ruixue.  2024. “Review of Precarious Ties: Business and the State in Authoritarian Asia.” Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 62(3): 1263-65.  draft​​

 ​

​​