Bio

I am an Associate Professor (Reader) of International Development and Public Policy at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. I also have extensive experience in the policy world. I have worked at multiple development organizations, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank. I was also a visiting researcher at the Bank of Finland and consulted with UNIDO. I have also worked at the People's Bank of China as a summer Ph.D. researcher. My research has appeared in many international peer-reviewed journals, such as  International Organization, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, American Review of Public Administration, Public Administration, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, and Journal of Chinese Political Science.  My work has been invited to present at various government agencies, such as China's Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Commerce, the U. S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Bank of Finland, and UNDP. I was a Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University and received my Ph.D. specializing in International Economic and Development Policy from the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park.

My research spans the areas of global development, global governance, global public policy, and international political economy, with a particular focus on synthesizing a “top-down” of international governmental organizations (IGOs) and a “bottom-up” of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) perspectives to answer urgent questions in the world of development. 

Specifically, most of my research centers around three main streams. 

1. The first stream examines the relationship between new multilateral development banks (MDBs) by rising powers like China and the well-established ones by traditional powers, and how that affects global governance and the global development landscape. This strand of my work has appeared in International Organization, Journal of Chinese Political Science.  

2. The second stream investigates mainly INGOs and their interactions with various states, particularly their impact on global development. This strand of my work has appeared in the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, American Review of Public Administration, Public Administration, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, and Public Administration and Development. Together, the first two streams of my research synthesize a “top-down” of IGOs and a “bottom-up” of INGOs perspectives to answer urgent questions in the world of development. 

3. The third stream of my research studies the management system of foreign aid and development finance using public administration and management theories and its impact on aid effectiveness and outcome, with a particular focus on emerging countries.  This strand of my work has appeared in Public Administration and Development, and Palgrave's book. 

In addition, I regularly conduct evidenced-based policy studies and impact evaluations by taking advantage of various data and empirical methods, with a particular focus on the Chinese context.