Research
Research Interests
- Autocratic politics and democratization: elections, political parties, media and propaganda, and corruption
- Methodology: quantitative analysis, formal modeling, experiments, and social network analysis
- East Asia and Southeast Asia
Dissertation Project
- Mark Dictators’ Calendars: An Informational Theory of Election Schedules in Autocracies (description)
Working Papers
- Personalist Parties in Democracies (with Erica Frantz, Andrea Kendall-Taylor, and Joseph Wright) (R&R at Democratization)
- How Personalist Parties Undermine State Capacity (with Joseph Wright)
- Mark Dictators’ Calendars: The Manipulation of Election Schedules in Autocracies (abstract and manuscript)
- I Leave in Peace: Autocratic Elections and Negotiated Regime Transitions (abstract and manuscript)
- International Mudslinging in Vain: An Experiment on COVID-Related Propaganda and Overseas Nationals’ Support for Autocratic Government (with Rosemary Pang) (abstract and manuscript)
Work in Progress
- Election Delayed, Weakness Displayed? An Experiment on Manipulated Election Schedules and Political Participation under Autocracy (proposal abstract)
- Divergence of Media Language in the China-U.S. Decoupling (with Danqing Mei and Wayne Yuan Gao)
- Anticorruption and Innovation: Evidence from China (with Zhongyang He)
- Autocrats Untying Their Hands: Political Prosecution of Corruption in a Limited Autocracy
Editor-Reviewed Publication
- Li, Jia. 2020. Book review of Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy by Michael Albertus and Victor Menaldo. Democratization 27(3): 497-499.
- Li, Jia. 2013. “Insider Story: A Learned Evaluation of ‘One Country Two Systems’ in Hong Kong.” Book review of The Quest for Rule of Law in Hong Kong under One Country Two Systems (in Chinese) by A. H. Y. Chen. New Frontiers in Asian Scholarship, Harvard-Yenching Institute, January 28.