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. Methodologically, I am interested in “Big Data” analysis of business and politics. I developed automated methods for collecting and matching extensive administrative data, creating two original databases: the Chinese Revolving-Door Officials Database and the Chinese Public-Private Partnership Database.

My research 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. My work has been featured by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, CNBC, The Wire China,and The Guardian.

I earned my PhD in Political Science from Duke University. Prior to my time at 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.

My research has received funding from various institutions, including the National Science Foundation, Google Cloud Platform, the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, and others.

You can contact me via email at zeren.li@nus.edu.sg.