Welcome!

I am an assistant professor at the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science, National Tsing Hua University. My research lies at the intersection of political economy, institutions, and behavior, with a substantive focus on redistribution, courts, and propaganda in authoritarian regimes. Geographically, my work concentrates on China and Taiwan. My solo-authored work has been published by Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, and Political Behavior. Embracing transparency in science, I have a coauthored registered report with a completed formal manuscript forthcoming in Journal of Politics. I received my PhD from Emory University in 2024.

My research revolves around this central question: How do autocrats survive in power when threats from elites and the masses escalate and collide? I answer this question by focusing on elite-mass conflict arising from progressive redistribution (e.g., pro-worker legislation). My work delves into the strategies employed by autocrats to resolve the distributional dilemma, with an emphasis on courts and propaganda as the autocrat’s solutions. Drawing on fine-grained data from China and robust cross-national evidence, I provide new insights into two fundamental puzzles of the political economy of authoritarianism: (1) why autocrats redistribute and (2) when autocratic redistribution bolsters the regime rather than backfires.

In a related, secondary agenda, I have conducted and developed policy-relevant research projects on the domestic politics of Taiwan, a case of growing significance with profound implications for democratic consolidation and regional security amid the rise of China.

Before coming to Emory, I received my M.A. and B.A. degrees in political science from National Taiwan University. I was an exchange student at Tsinghua University in China, where I found my intellectual passion in autocratic politics, labor, welfare, and comparative political economy.

You can contact me via email: wanghy@mx.nthu.edu.tw