Shengqiao Lin

Shengqiao Lin

Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science

The University of Texas at Austin

Welcome to my homepage!

My name is Shengqiao Lin 林声巧. I am now a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin, advised by Professor Xiaobo Lü. I am on the academic job market for 2023-24.

My research centers on the political economy of state-business relations with a regional focus on China. I am interested in how firms and individuals strategically respond to government intervention in the market (e.g., policy shifts, regulatory enforcement, economic sanction), and how these interactions shape outcomes such as economic growth, trade and investment, public opinion, and governance.

My dissertation studies business responses to political risk in China using a mixed-methods approach that combines causal inference with observational data, computational methods, and in-depth interviews. My job market paper “Addressing Risk by Doing Good: Business Response to Government Policy Initiative” won the Franklin L. Burdette/Pi Sigma Alpha Award for the best conference paper of APSA in 2023.

I obtained my M.A. degree from the School of Public Policy and Management and a B.A. degree from the School of Humanities at Tsinghua University.

Since 2020, I have taken to Weibo (China’s Twitter) to introduce social science research from top academic journals. My academic blog, titled “Invitation to Political Science (政治学的邀约)” makes complex concepts accessible for non-English and non-specialist audience and has garnered over 1.1 million reads (avaliable now at Notion and Weibo). I am currently writing a new series titled “Mostly Harmless Political Economy (基本无害的政治经济学)” on Weibo.

You can reach me via email: shengqiaolin@utexas.edu.

Interests

  • State-business Relations
  • International Business
  • Authoritarian Regimes
  • Political Economy
  • Chinese Politics

Education

  • Ph.D. in Political Science, 2024 (Expected)

    The University of Texas at Austin

  • M.A. in Public Policy and Management, 2018

    Tsinghua University

  • B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature, 2015

    Tsinghua University

RESEARCH

Job Market Paper

  • Addressing Risk by Doing Good: Business Responses to Government Policy Initiatives

Publications

  • (2022) “Urban Chinese Support for Armed Unification with Taiwan: Social Status, National Pride and Understanding of Taiwan” (with Dongtao Qi and Suixin Zhang) Journal of Contemporary China [Link] [Featured in Taiwan Insight]
  • (2021) “Dividing without Conquering: Generation, Class, Ethnicity, and Nationalism in Taiwan’s 2016 Presidential Election” (with Dongtao Qi) Issues & Studies [Link]

Working Papers

  • When Do Businesses Partner with Governments? Evidence from China’s Regulatory Crackdown (dissertation paper, in preparation for submission)

  • Service Motivation under Political Pressure: Exploring Chinese Local Cadres Responsiveness (with Zhezhe Duan and Zhenqing Zheng, R&R at Asian Survey)

  • Keep Calm and Do Business: Economic (Non)Responses to Political Tensions (with Fanying Kong and Xuan Wang, under review)

  • Political Backlash of Economic Sanctions: Evidence from Beijing’s Restriction on Cross-straits Tourism (with Dongtao Qi and Suixin Zhang, under review, available at [SSRN])

  • Access, Experience and Outcome: Bridging the Internship Gaps in the Media Industry (with Wenhong Chen, Lesley Willard, Luis Figueroa and Katie Hoovestol, under review)

    • First Place Paper Award of the Internships and Careers Interest Group at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (2023)

TEACHING

Co-Instructor

Teaching Assistant

  • Politics in Contemporary China (2022)
  • Social Movement (2022)
  • American Government (2020, 2021)
  • U.S.-Latin America Relations (2019)
  • Political Parties (2018)