“The heterogeneous impact of public security cameras on safety perceptions in cities: Evidence from China”, with Pinghan Liang, Fanqi Zeng and Yadi Liu. PNAS Nexus, 2025
Digital public security systems in cities, such as surveillance cameras, can record illegal behavior and deter crime, thereby enhancing residents’ perceptions of safety. However, the impact of public surveillance cameras on residents’ safety perceptions in urban environments remains insufficiently understood, especially at the national level. Drawing on a novel dataset from Chinese government procurement records on surveillance cameras (2013–2017) and a representative national household survey, we find that a 10% increase in per capita camera expenditure results in a 0.2-unit increase in residents’ perceived safety. Notably, this effect is observed only among local residents. For migrants, surveillance cameras improve perceived safety only when complemented by social ties, with neighborhood ties being more effective than distant ones in shaping these perceptions. Furthermore, the effectiveness of surveillance cameras on migrants’ perceived safety is moderated by weather conditions and the inclusiveness of the urban environment. Our findings highlight that while public security technology can improve residents’ safety perceptions, human-centered development remains essential for sustainable urban governance.
“Local Governments and the Diffusion of Video Surveillance in China: Evidence from the Public Procurement Contracts”, with Pinghan Liang and Xijie Li.
Journal of Chinese Political Science, 2025
China’s surveillance system has proliferated over the past two decades, but much remains unknown about it. Many researchers have studied central government surveillance, few have examined the role of local governments from a decentralized perspective. To address this gap, we use local government video surveillance procurement contracts data between 2014 and 2020 from the Chinese government procurement website, and analyze trends in the video surveillance investments of local government. We further consider the possible motivations for expanding video surveillance in localities, and fnd that directives from superior-level governments, rather than public pressure or public safety incidents, are the primary drivers of variation in procurement of video surveillance technology. We further consider the moderating efect of local leaders’ personal characteristics and fnd that the age and tenure of the municipal Party secretary all afect the above results. These results differ from previous research, which has focused on the central government’s planning for video surveillance and less on local implementation.
“公共安全基础设施建设与居民服务消费”, with Pinghan Liang and Yichuan Zhang.
世界经济, 2025.
The integration of digital technologies into public safety governance has become an important pathway for modernizing the national security system and governance capacity, as well as for maintaining national security and social stability. This paper employs a semi-supervised deep learning algorithm to collect and compile procurement announcements for video surveillance systems issued by prefecture-level city governments in China. These data are matched with four waves of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2014 to 2020 to examine the impact of digital public safety infrastructure on household service consumption.The results show that a higher density of public video surveillance equipment is associated with greater household expenditure on services. This finding is further supported by an instrumental variable approach that exploits the historical distribution of core technologies underlying video surveillance systems. The underlying mechanism operates through improved public security: the deployment of video surveillance reduces both economic and violent crimes and strengthens property rights protection. These improvements, in turn, increase the number of service-sector establishments on the supply side, enhance residents’ perceived sense of safety on the demand side, and stimulate nighttime economic activities. This study provides theoretical support for the deployment of public video surveillance systems and offers policy implications for crime prevention, property rights protection, and the improvement of household consumption decisions.
“财政压力与罚没收入”, with with Pinghan Liang and Chenglin Li.
经济理论与经济管理, 2025.
“地方政府建设智能视频监控系统的影响因素研究”, with with Pinghan Liang and Yulan Zhao.
复旦公共行政评论, 2025.
“Budget rollover and year-end spending in China: evidence from public procurement contracts”, with Pinghan Liang.
China Economic Review, 2025
This paper exploits the reform of China’s Budget Law, which restricts the rollover of fiscal surplus across years, to examines the impact of UILI (use-it-or-lose-it) budget rules on year-end spending spikes. We analyze the universe of public procurement contracts from 2014 to 2021 and develop a method to assess contract quality. We show substantial surges in procurement contracts at the end of the year, which are more likely to be of low quality. The difference-in-difference model indicates that after the reform, local governments award 25.8 % more procurement contracts and double spending on procurement in the last month of the year. The year-end spending surges concentrate on goods and construction projects procurement, high-value contracts, and favor local suppliers. It is likely that UILI rules intensify budgetary uncertainty embedded in hierarchical allocation of fiscal fund.
[“社会与政府协同推动政府采购质量提升——基于政府采购协会成立的视角”,] with Pinghan Liang. 经济学（季刊）, Accepted
Effective government–society interactions can improve the quality of public spending. Using more than 13 million government procurement announcements from the China Government Procurement Network, this paper examines the impact of the establishment of government procurement associations on procurement quality. We find that the formation of such associations significantly improves the quality of government procurement. This effect is more pronounced in regions with weaker social capital and lower fiscal transparency. The mechanism analysis shows that procurement associations enhance procurement quality by establishing industry standards that reduce irregularities and by facilitating communication and information coordination between buyers and suppliers. In addition, procurement associations significantly increase market competition and promote cross-regional procurement. These effects contribute to the integration of procurement markets and support the development of a unified national market.
“中国政府采购公告数据的使用和潜在问题”, with with Pinghan Liang.
产业经济评论, 2023.
“我国政府采购支出质量的评价及影响因素研究———基于政府采购信息披露质量的视角”, with with Pinghan Liang.
宏观质量研究, 2025.
“How people respond to risk after being exposed to the risk of loss: An experimental study”, with Zhiqiang Dong and Jun Zhao.
Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 2022
This paper exploits the reform of China’s Budget Law, which restricts the rollover of fiscal surplus across years, to examines the impact of UILI (use-it-or-lose-it) budget rules on year-end spending spikes. We analyze the universe of public procurement contracts from 2014 to 2021 and develop a method to assess contract quality. We show substantial surges in procurement contracts at the end of the year, which are more likely to be of low quality. The difference-in-difference model indicates that after the reform, local governments award 25.8 % more procurement contracts and double spending on procurement in the last month of the year. The year-end spending surges concentrate on goods and construction projects procurement, high-value contracts, and favor local suppliers. It is likely that UILI rules intensify budgetary uncertainty embedded in hierarchical allocation of fiscal fund.
“Higher risk exposure in gains brings more risktaking in losses: an experimental study”, with Zhiqiang Dong and Jun Zhao.
Applied Economics Letters, 2023
Past experiences play a key role in shaping risk preferences. Several experimental studies have found that the impact of antecedent risk exposure on subsequent risk-taking behaviour varies across domains, but a gap still exists in the literature with respect to how this dynamic is shaped by gains and losses. This paper experimentally reveals that exposure to a higher level of risk in the gain domain makes individuals more risk-taking in the subsequent loss domain and vice versa.
“Are proactive employees more creative? The roles of multisource information exchange and social exchange-based employee-organization relationships”, with Xi Li and Aishi Zhang. Personality and Individual Differences, 2021
This study integrated personal characteristics and social perspectives on employee creativity and employed a moderated mediation model to examine the relationships among proactive personality, multisource information exchange, and employee creativity in the context of social exchange-based employee-organization relationships (EORs). Data were collected from 509 employees and their direct supervisors within a large Chinese company. The results indicate that multisource information exchange partially mediates the positive association between proactive personality and employee creativity. Furthermore, in social exchange-based EORs, proactive employees are more likely to engage in multisource information exchange activities with internal and external stakeholders and to subsequently generate more creative ideas. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
“Causal Role of the Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Organizational Fairness Perception: Evidence From a Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study”, with Xi Li, Guanxing Xiong, Zhiqiang Dong, Shenggang Cai, Jun Zhao and Zhe She. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 2020
The right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) plays an essential role in social decisionmaking. Although several neural imaging studies have provided evidence that the rDLPFC is correlated with fairness perception, little research has investigated the causal effect of this encephalic region on individuals’ consciousness, particularly perceptions of organizational fairness. The present study explores the causal relationship between the rDLPFC and organizational fairness perception by using brain modulation techniques. Healthy participants received transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and fulfilled the modified ultimatum game (UG) in the sham-controlled experiment. Our results showed that only cathodal stimulation of the rDLPFC resulted in increasing rejection offers compared with the sham stimulation in conditions of disadvantageous inequity. No differences were found between the anodal and sham stimulation in any inequity condition. This study strengthens the main functional effects of the rDLPFC in negative emotional control in relation to organizational fairness perceptions.
“Comrades and Cause: Peer Influence on West Point Cadets’ Civil War Allegiances”, with Matthew O. Jackson and Ruixue Jia.
PNAS, R&R
Do social networks and peer influence shape major life decisions in highly polarized settings? We explore this question by examining how peers influenced the allegiances of West Point cadets during the American Civil War. Leveraging quasi-random variations in the proportion of cadets from Free States, we analyze how these differences affected decisions about which army to join. We find that a higher proportion of classmates from Free States significantly increased the likelihood that cadets from Slave States joined the Union Army, while almost all cadets from Free States joined the Union Army (if they decided to join the war). We further examine how cadets’ decisions affected their military rank and career outcomes. Our findings highlight that peers still influence choices even when they are life-altering and occur during periods of extreme polarization.
“Why Are There So Many Surveillance Cameras in China: Revenue Motivation Behind Law Enforcement”, with Pinghan Liang and Chenglin Li.
Why are there so many surveillance cameras in China? This paper explains the continuous expansion of China’s digital surveillance system from a fiscal perspective. Local governments may resort to extra-budgetary revenues, such as traffic fines, when facing fiscal distress. We collect data on public traffic camera procurements from 2014 to 2019 in China, and exploit the 2016 VAT reform as an exogenous shock to local fiscal revenue. We find that in regions with better road access, local governments procure more traffic enforcement cameras in response to fiscal pressure. An increase in traffic cameras as part of law enforcement efforts is associated with higher fine revenues, more driver petitions, and reduced activity in related industries, without a detectable improvement in road safety. These effects are more pronounced in cities at lower administrative levels and with lower fiscal transparency. Our findings highlight the hidden fiscal incentives underlying the construction of China’s surveillance cameras system.
“Presidents’ Heel: Hometown Biases and (Mis)allocation of Chinese Universities Funds”, with Pinghan Liang and Qilin Huang.
Efficient allocation of public funds in higher education is essential for fostering technological progress and accumulating human capital. However, in practice, resource allocation is often influenced by political power. This paper investigates how leadership transitions in universities, specifically the turnover of university presidents, affect procurement allocation. Using comprehensive data on procurement contracts from all Chinese elite universities between 2013 and 2021, we find that universities significantly increase purchases from the new president’s hometown after the turnover. These contracts are more likely to be of lower quality, as indicated by the use of non-competitive procurement methods (e.g., single-source or negotiated bidding) and a higher incidence of missing contract information. Moreover, the increase is concentrated in procurement categories that are more susceptible to manipulation, such as specialized contracts and contracts with smaller monetary values. Our findings suggest that such patterns are driven by hometown favoritism rather than information asymmetry, revealing a subtle but consequential form of corruption that distorts the allocation of university resources in China.