Who We Are

REAP’s core group consists of researchers and experts from the following research centers:

In addition, we have strong partnerships across Stanford, China, and the world. Working with our core research partners, REAP leverages resources within this global network to increase the reach, efficiency, and impact of our work.

 

Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), Stanford University

FSI is Stanford University's primary center for rigorous and innovative research on major international issues and challenges. FSI builds on Stanford's impressive intellectual strengths and exacting academic standards through interdisciplinary research conducted by its university-wide faculty, researchers, and visiting scholars.

 

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Scott Rozelle
Co-Director & Principal Investigator
Helen F. Farnsworth Senior Fellow
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University

Scott Rozelle's research focuses almost exclusively on China and is concerned with: a) the emergence and evolution of markets and other economic institutions in the transition process and their implications for equity and efficiency; b) the economics of poverty and inequality; and c) agricultural policy. He is fluent in Mandarin and has established a research program in which he has close working ties with Chinese collaborators and policymakers.

 

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Prashant Loyalka
Center Research Fellow
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University

Prashant Loyalka is a Center Research Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and an Assistant Professor (Research) at the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. His research focuses on examining/addressing inequalities in the education of youth and on understanding/improving the quality of education received by youth in large developing economies, including China, Russia and India. In the course of addressing educational inequalities, Prashant examines the consequences of tracking, financial and informational constraints, and psycho-social factors in highly competitive education systems. His work on understanding educational quality is built around research that assesses and compares student learning in higher education, high school and compulsory schooling. He furthermore conducts large-scale evaluations of educational programs and policies that seek to improve student outcomes.

 

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Matthew Boswell
Project Manager for Technology and Human Capital, REAP
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University

Matthew Boswell manages the technology and human capital program at REAP. He has extensive experience managing development projects in northwestern China and has held research and analysis positions in several US-based think tanks. He holds an MA in East Asian Studies from Stanford University, focusing on the history and politics of China’s northwestern frontier. He is a fluent Mandarin speaker.

 

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Alexis Medina
Program Manager
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University

Alexis Medina has been researching the economics of social issues in China for over ten years. She has extensive experience in international project management, including conducting health-related fieldwork in rural areas of Shandong province and performing data analysis and international project support at Harvard University’s School of Public Health. Her current projects include deworming efforts among Chinese schoolchildren and providing vitamin supplements to mothers and infants. She speaks fluent Mandarin, and holds an MA in East Asian Studies from Yale University.

 

James Paisley
Communications Associate
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University

James Paisley handles communication and website content for REAP. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a B.A. in History and International Studies, focusing on modern conflict in Asia and contemporary Chinese issues. He is fluent in Mandarin.

 

 

Center for Experimental Economics in Education (CEEE), Shaanxi Normal University

CEEE is devoted to conducting research to inform education and health policy in China and to developing the capacity of local social science researchers. The Center is committed to promoting interdisciplinary research through scientific research, training, and education programs.
 

Professor and Director
Center for Experimental Economics in Education
Shaanxi Normal University (Xi'an)

Yaojiang Shi is a Professor of Economics at Shaanxi Normal University in Xi'an, China. He is the founding director of the Center for Experimental Economics in Education (CEEE). His research interests include the emergence and development of economic enterprises in rural China, as well as how incentives can affect government performance. His work is increasingly focused on China's education reforms and using emperical research to identify important leverage points for education policy that addressed the needs of the rural poor.

 

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Ai Yue
Associate Professor
Center for Experimental Economics in Education, Shaanxi Normal University (Xi'an)

Ai Yue is an assistant professor with the Center for Experimental Economics in Education (CEEE) at Shaanxi Normal Unviersity.  While earning her Master's and PhD degrees, Ai Yue assisted her advisor Professor Yaojiang Shi in carrying out more than 20 of CEEE's research projects.  Most recently, she has worked on REAP and CEEE's teacher performance pay, computer-assisted learning, and baby nutrition projects.  Her research interests include rural education and development and public goods and services.

 

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Fang Chang
Associate Professor
Center for Experimental Economics in Education, Shaanxi Normal University (Xi'an)

Fang Chang is an assistant professor with the Center for Experimental Economics in Education (CEEE) at Shaanxi Normal University.  Her research interests include rural economics and development as well as rural education.  She earned her Master's degree in administrative management and her PhD in public economics from China's Northwestern University.  Recently, Fang Chang has worked with REAP on baby nutrition and teacher performance pay projects. 
 
Assistant Professor
Center for Experimental Economics in Education, Shaanxi Normal University (Xi'an)
 
Yu Bai is an Assistant Professor at Center for Experimental Economics in Education, Shaanxi Normal University. He achieved PhD at the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He teaches Impact Evaluation, Statistics, Econometrics and Using Stata in Economics at Shaanxi Normal University. His recent research focus on early childhood development, migrants and their children, and computer assisted learning.
 
Assistant Professor
Center for Experimental Economics in Education, Shaanxi Normal University (Xi'an)

Jingchun Nie is an assistant professor with the Center for Experimental Economics in Education (CEEE) at Shaanxi Normal University He gained his Master's and PhD degrees from Renmin University of China. Jingchun Nie had worked on REAP and CEEE's Seeing is Learning and Standardized Patients project. Recently, he has worked on the Healthy Future project, which is focusing on improving the babies’ health from rural China. His research interests include rural education, rural health care and rural development.

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Jun Wang
Program Administrator, REAP-China
Center for Experimental Economics in Education, Shaanxi Normal University (Xi'an)

Jun Wang is the Program Administrator of the Center for Experimental Economics in Education (CEEE). She oversees graduate students, project management, international communications and publicity, office operations, and other administrative affairs. She holds a Master's degree in Economics.

 

 

 

Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences

CCAP is a research institution dedicated to expanding and developing rigorous basic and applied research to analyze the problems and challenges facing China's agricultural policy-makers and producers, as well as the factors contributing to constraints on agricultural and rural economic development.

 

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Linxiu Zhang
Director, REAP-China
Deputy Director
Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing)

Linxiu Zhang currently is Deputy Director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) where she oversees a research program on "Integrated Rural Urban Development and Anti-Poverty Policy". Most of her research concentrates on policy relevant studies related to agricultural and rural development in China, including poverty and inequality, gender and household nutrition, and integrated resource management at community level, community governance and public goods investments, rural basic education and the New Cooperative Medical System (NCMS). She holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Reading, England.

 

Chengfang Liu
Associate Professor
Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing)

Chengfang Liu obtained her Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics in 2008 from the University of California, Davis. Her research is focused on public goods and services provision, and draws on data that she and field teams she has directed have collected in rural China over the past ten years. Chengfang has investigated the school mergers that have taken place recently in rural China, and she is currently working on a book about education and academic performance in rural China.

 

Renfu Luo
Associate Professor
Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing)

Renfu Luo is an associate professor at the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He received his Masters degree from Henan University in 2002 and his PhD in Science from Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2006. His research focuses on China's rural development, including work on rural public investment and rural development, rural education and the provision of public services.

 

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Hongmei Yi
Assistant Professor
Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing)

Hongmei Yi is a researcher of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). She received her PhD in Agricultural Economics from CAS in 2009. Her research interests are mainly focused on human capital investment, social protection network, and health policy reform in rural China.
 

 

Core Research Partners

 

 Nathan Congdon
Professor
School of Medicine
Queens University Belfast


Nathan Congdon holds both an MD and Master's in Public Health. His clinical specialty is glaucoma, and his research interests include cataract prevention, Vitamin-A deficiency, and the epidemiology of glaucoma in Asia.

 

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Guirong Li
Central China Research Team Leader, REAP-China
Chair & Professor
Center for Action Research on Education, Henan University (Kaifeng, Henan)


Guirong Li received her PhD in educational economics and management from Beijing Normal University. She is a professor of education at Henan University, a doctoral supervisor, Director of Center for Action Research on Education (CARE) of Henan University, and teacher training advisor to the Ministry of Education. Her research interests include education and economic theory, efficient allocation of resources in education and evaluating teacher training programs. She has partnered with REAP to establish a database of large-scale field surveys to support future research efforts in rural China.

 

Xiaochen Ma
Lecturer, China Center for Health Development Studies
Peking Univeristy
 

As a health and development economist, Dr. Ma’s research focuses on developing innovative ways to design and evaluate policies that deliver health goods to low income populations as well as the interactions of health and education initiatives in developing countries. He has been involved with REAP since 2008 when he conducted REAP's first migrant education project in China. He is currently working with REAP to carry out a series of randomized trials that provide quality vision care to rural and migrant communities in China.

 

Sean Sylvia
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Policy and Management, University of North Carolina


Sean Sylvia is a development economist whose work focuses on health and education policy in China. His main area of research concerns how governments can better provide essential public services to the poor.

 

 Chengchao Zhou
Associate Professor
Institute of Social Medicine and Health Adminisitration, School of Public Health, Shandong University
Chengchao Zhou holds an MPH from Anhui Medical University and a PhD in Social Medicine and Health Administration from Shandong University. His research has focused on community-based health programs, especially among tuberculosis and vision patients.

 

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Huan Zhou
Professor
Sichuan University School of Public Health


Professor Zhou obtained her PhD degree in International Health from the University of Tokyo in Japan. For the past 20 years, her research has concentrated on health and social behaviours in both urban and rural areas in China, particularly on maternal and child health, tobacco control, and HIV/AIDs prevention, as well as parasite prevention. In recent years, her research has focused on left-behind children, infant nutrition and pregnant women’s health in poor rural areas in western China. She has published more than 30 papers and books both domestically and internationally.

 

Research Affiliates

Xinxin Chen
Associate Professor 
School of Economics, Zhejiang Gongshang University
Xinxin Chen's research focuses on rural development in China. She is currently investigating the effect of social and economic changes on primary school students in rural china.

 

Thomas Glauben
Professor, Agricultural and Food Economics at the University Halle-Wittenberg
Director, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe (IAMO), Germany.
Thomas Glauben's research interests are in agricultural and food economics, industrial organization, econometric methods, and transition and emerging economies.

 

Li Han
Assistant Professor
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Li Han's research interests are in development economics and political economy. Her recent work examines the recent wave of centralization reforms in rural education system in China.

 

John Kennedy
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science, University of Kansas
John Kennedy's research focuses on local governance and resource management in rural China.

 

Xiangzhi Kong
Professor and Executive Deputy Dean
School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Renmin University
Xiangzhi Kong's research focuses on farmers cooperatives and analysis of agricultural policies.

 

Hongbin Li
Senior Fellow
Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford University
Hongbin Li's research focuses on two areas: 1) the incentives, behaviors and performance of governments, banks and enterprises in the context of economic transition, and 2) education, health, demographic and labor issues in economic development. He obtained his PhD in economics in 2001 from Stanford University.

 

Tao Li
Associate Professor 
HSBC School of BusinessPeking University
Tao Li's research focuses on education and labor policies in China. He recently designed and implemented a new remedial education program which used an incentive contract to encourage peer tutors to help their under-performing classmates. He was a visiting scholar at Stanford University during 2008-2009.

 

Grant Miller
Associate Professor
Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford University
Grant Miller's research focuses on strategies to improve health and reduce mortality in poor countries; the economic benefits of health improvement; determinants of fertility and the impact of family-planning programs in developing countries.

 

Xiaopeng Pang 
Associate Professor 
School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Renmin University
Xiaopeng Pang's research focuses on village elections in China, poverty reduction and rural development, cooperatives, agricultural organizations and policy, as well as gender perspective economic issues in China.

 

Yingquan Song
Associate Professor
China Institute for Educational Finance Research, Peking University
Yingquan Song's research focuses on economics of education, education finance, financing vocational education and training in China, financing education for migrant children in China's urban areas, and early education and childcare.

 

Johan Swinnen
Professor, Development Economics
Director,  LICOS Center for Institutions and Economic Performance at the University of Leuven (KUL) in Belgium.
Johan Swinnen's research focuses on institutional reform and development, globalization and international integration, media economics, and agriculture and food policy.

 

Ke Jin
Journalist and Communications Professional
China Education Daily Newspaper
Mr Ke is a news journalist for the China Education Daily newspaper, a publicity arm of China's Ministry of Education. His journalism covers a wide variety of issues related to education across the country. He is an important source of information on the development and rollout of new education policies, guidelines, and initiatives.

 

Marcos Vera-Hernández
Senior Lecturer
Department of Economics, University College London
Marcos Vera-Hernández' research interests include development economics, health economics, and applied microeconomics. He has worked closely with REAP on a number of projects that look at incentives to improve health, including a randomized trial that provides incentives to schools principals in China to reduce anemia and improve test scores.

 

Lei Wang
Associate Professor, West China Financial Research Centre, International Business School Deputy Director, International Programs Office, Shaanxi Normal University
Lei Wang’s research interests include financial risk management, rural finance in China and development economics.