Publication & Working Paper:
[1] Urban Forests: Environmental Health Values and Risks (with Eric Zou, Jianwei Xing, Jintao Xu, and Fan Xia)
Review of Economics and Statistics, 2026
Preprint Version | Random Acts of Medicine | Camphor Economists Circle [香樟]
Selected Presentations: 2023 Stanford SITE; 2024 ASSA Annual Meeting; 2024 NBER China Meeting Spring
Abstract: We study a massive urban afforestation policy in Beijing that planted 1/3 of a million acres of greenery in less than a decade. The policy reduces PM₂.₅ concentration at population hubs by 4.2 percent, the health value of which amounts to 1.5% of the city’s annual GDP. Rapid vegetation growth unexpectedly led to a 7.4 percent increase in pollen exposure, triggering respiratory emergency room visits, although the medical costs are outweighed by the pollution benefits. Urban forests are only partially capitalized in housing values, with buyers mainly appreciating proximity to green spaces but not the air quality improvements they bring.
[2] Greening through Tourism (with Mingying Zhu, Bo Chen, and Wei Du)
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Reject & Resubmit
Selected Presentations: 2025 CAERE; 2025 AAEA Annual Meeting; 2025 PKU CCER Annual Meeting
Abstract: This paper investigates whether productivity growth in the service sector can improve environmental quality. Using the expansion of China's national 5A-level tourist attraction list as a natural experiment, we find that when a city obtains its first nationally recognized tourist attraction, the PM2.5 concentration declines by about 4.5% over the following decade. The improvement in air quality is driven by structural transformation resulting from the reallocation of capital and labor toward the service sector, rather than strengthened environmental regulations. The air quality improvement generated an additional USD 3.1 billion in revenue for China's tourism sector over the ten-year period.
[3] Incentivizing Environmental Public Goods: Evidence from Urban Greening in China (with Ding Ma and Xintong Li)
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Revise & Resubmit
Selected Presentations: 2025 China Economic Annual Conference; 2026 CAERE Annual Meeting
Abstract: China's rapid surge in urban greening over the past decade presents a puzzling deviation from global patterns. We document three stylized facts. Urban greening was stable from 2001 to 2013 but expanded rapidly afterward, coinciding with China's air pollution control efforts. More polluted cities experienced faster greening growth, and greening disproportionately occurred near air quality monitoring stations. These patterns suggest that urban greening partly reflects a strategic response by local governments to air pollution control mandates. The economic benefits of urban greening amount to approximately 1.16 trillion CNY per year, exceeding program costs. Our results suggest that top-down air pollution control reshaped local government incentives, improving the provision of environmental public goods and social welfare.
[4] Solar Powered Charging: The Role of Economic Incentives and Information Nudges (with Huanxiu Guo and Jindi Zheng)
RCT Registry: AEA RCT Registry 0016549; AEA RCT Registry 0016875
Selected Presentations: 2026 Wuhan Workshop on Experimental Economics; 2026 CAERE Annual Meeting
Abstract: We study electric vehicle users' responses to three types of demand-response policy tools: electricity prices, monetary incentives, and information nudges. Combining a time-of-use pricing natural experiment and a randomized field experiment, we document three main findings. First, electric vehicle users are highly sensitive to electricity prices, and small price changes can reallocate intraday charging demand. Second, short-term and small monetary incentives induce users to increase charging during solar-abundant days with a one-day lag, whereas environmental information nudges have no effect. Third, monetary incentives can encourage electric vehicle users to supply electricity back to the grid. Our results suggest that price and monetary incentive mechanisms can serve as effective demand-side management tools to facilitate renewable energy integration and the energy transition.
Paper in Chinese:
[1] 遥感时代的经济学：太空、数据与研究范式转变 (review paper; with Yifeng Guo, Yongwei Nian, and Zhijie Zhou) [Draft Available on Request]
摘要: 经济学研究主要依托于统计调查数据，但此类数据常常存在质量不佳、更新滞后、缺失严重等问题。近年来，随着遥感技术的发展和卫星数据可获得性的增强，遥感数据越来越多被应用于经济学研究中。遥感数据具有内容上的客观性、时间上的连续性、空间上的精细性和覆盖上的全域性等特点，可以有效弥补传统数据的不足。本文基于中国背景，系统评述了遥感数据在相关经济学研究领域中的应用，并讨论了其对经济学研究范式的深层影响。