Mary Elise Sarotte received her AB in History and Science from Harvard and her PhD in History from Yale. She is an expert on the history of international relations, particularly European and US foreign policy, transatlantic relations, and Western relations with Russia. Her book, Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate, was shortlisted for both the Cundill Prize and the Duke of Wellington Medal, received the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Prize Silver Medal, and won the Pushkin House Prize for Best Non-Fiction Book on Russia. Not One Inch is now appearing in multiple Asian and European languages, including a best-selling and updated version in German, Nicht einen Schritt weiter nach Osten. In 2026, Sarotte will return to Yale for a joint appointment as a tenured professor in both the Jackson School of Global Affairs and the School of Organization and Management.

Kathryn Stoner is the Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), and a Senior Fellow at CDDRL and the Center on International Security and Cooperation at FSI. From 2017 to 2021, she served as FSI's Deputy Director. She is Professor of Political Science (by courtesy) at Stanford, and she teaches in the Department of Political Science, in the Program on International Relations, as well as in the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy Program. She is also a Senior Fellow (by courtesy) at the Hoover Institution.

SCCEI Seminar Series (Fall 2025)

Friday, October 10, 2025 | 12:00 pm -1:20 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way

Due to room capacity limitations and high interest in this seminar, registration is now closed. 

Decoding China’s Industrial Policies

We decode China’s industrial policies from 2000 to 2022 by employing large language models (LLMs) to extract and analyze rich information from a comprehensive dataset of 3 million documents issued by central, provincial, and municipal governments. Through careful prompt engineering, multistage extraction and refinement, and rigorous verification, we use LLMs to classify the industrial policy documents and extract structured information on policy objectives, targeted industries, policy tones (supportive or regulatory/suppressive), policy tools, implementation mechanisms, and intergovernmental relationships, etc. Combining these newly constructed industrial policy data with micro-level firm data, we document four sets of facts about China’s industrial policy that explore the following questions: What are the economic and political foundations of the targeted industries? What policy tools are deployed? How do policy tools vary across different levels of government and regions, as well as over the phases of an industry’s development? What are the impacts of these policies on firm behavior, including entry, production, and productivity growth? We also explore the political economy of industrial policy, focusing on top-down transmission mechanisms, policy persistence, and policy diffusion across regions. Finally, we document spatial inefficiencies and industry-wide overcapacity as potential downsides of industrial policies.

About the Speaker 
 

Professor Hanming Fang is an applied microeconomist with broad theoretical and empirical interests focusing on public economics. His research integrates rigorous modeling with careful data analysis and has focused on the economic analysis of discrimination; insurance markets, particularly life insurance and health insurance; and health care, including Medicare. In his research on discrimination, Professor Fang has designed and implemented tests to examine the role of prejudice in racial disparities in matters involving search rates during highway stops, treatments received in emergency departments, and racial differences in parole releases. In 2008, Professor Fang was awarded the 17th Kenneth Arrow Prize by the International Health Economics Association (iHEA) for his research on the sources of advantageous selection in the Medigap insurance market.

Professor Fang is currently working on issues related to insurance markets, particularly the interaction between the health insurance reform and the labor market. He has served as co-editor for the Journal of Public Economics and International Economic Review, and associate editor in numerous journals, including the American Economic Review.

Professor Fang received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2000. Before joining the Penn faculty, he held positions at Yale University and Duke University.  He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, where he served as the acting director of the Chinese Economy Working Group from 2014 to 2016. He is also a research associate of the Population Studies Center and Population Aging Research Center, and a senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Questions? Contact Xinmin Zhao at xinminzhao@stanford.edu
 

Generating Opportunity: A Vacancy-Chain Approach to Organizational Mobility in the Chinese Bureaucracy

Speaker: Yuze Sui, PhD candidate in Sociology, Stanford University

How do organizations generate mobility opportunities, and how do those opportunities travel through internal labor markets? This paper develops a vacancy-chain approach to organizational mobility that shifts attention from isolated transitions to linked episodes of opportunity generation, allocation, and stabilization. I apply this approach to three decades of personnel movements in the Jiangsu provincial bureaucracy, reconstructing complete vacancy chains among leadership positions from 1992 to 2017. The analysis reveals three findings. First, mobility opportunities are not simply produced by incumbent exit; they are frequently manufactured through temporary slot expansion, especially in flexible deputy positions. Second, the organizational sites most central to opportunity generation are not necessarily those with the greatest formal authority. Ceremonial bodies such as the People’s Congress and CPPCC disproportionately initiate vacancy chains, generate longer cascades, and promote cross-functional circulation within jurisdictions. Third, boundary-spanning mobility is stabilized not through fixed office-to-office pipelines but through a hub-and-spoke architecture in which recurring connector offices link otherwise segmented domains. These findings recast opportunity structure as an endogenous organizational product: opportunities must be generated before they can be allocated, and their downstream paths depend on where they originate. More broadly, the paper shows how organizations sustain mobility while balancing segmentation, coordination, and control.

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays from 12 - 1 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

Outsourcing Property Rights: How China Sustains Pharmaceutical Innovation Under Domestic Cost Control

Speaker: Victoria Liu, PhD candidate in Political Science, Stanford University

China is the world’s second-largest biotech innovator, yet it enforces some of the most aggressive drug price controls. National procurement reforms since 2019 have cut drug prices by over half, significantly reducing the profit margins typically required to fund R&D. How does China sustain a booming biotech sector while enforcing aggressive domestic price controls? I show that Chinese pharmaceutical industry thrives by “outsourcing property rights.” Chinese firms utilize domestic resources for early-stage R&D, but rely on overseas licensing to capture revenue. This allows the state to enforce severe cost-containment at home while firms monetize their innovation on the global market.

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays from 12 - 1 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

Environmental and Health Effects of the World’s Largest Afforestation Program

Speaker: Artemis Yuanxiaoyue Yang, Visiting PhD candidate, Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions

Air pollution carried by the wind poses serious threats to public health in areas located downwind of pollution sources. In response, governments and organizations have adopted geoengineering strategies such as artificial afforestation to mitigate these adverse effects. Combining atmospheric dispersion modeling and quasi-experimental approaches, this study quantitatively evaluates the health benefits of the Three-North Shelterbelt Project (TNS) - the world’s largest government-funded afforestation initiative - which aims at restoring 356,123 km2 of forests, equivalent to the area of Germany, across Northern China from 1978 to 2050. We compile a comprehensive dataset from multiple sources, including satellite-based land use, vegetation indices, and air pollution, and administrative records of mortality. Initial results suggest that a one km^2 increase in policy-induced vegetation cover reduces PM2.5 concentrations by 0.354 μg/m^3 and yields $117,919 of health benefits.

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays from 12 - 1 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

Acceptability and Feasibility of a Mindfulness Course for College Students in China

Speaker: Cody Abbey, PhD Candidate in Graduate School of Education, Stanford University

The college years are a crucial developmental stage during which mental conditions often emerge, including anxiety disorders and depression. Thus, it is crucial that college students have access to resources that help them develop skills for adapting to stressors and flourishing in their new environments. Unfortunately, in settings such as China, hard-to-access mental health services and a paucity of wellness courses often prevent students from receiving the support that they need. This study explores the lived experiences of undergraduates at two universities in China in a mindfulness-based program adapted for the local college student context. Specifically, this research explores three areas related to participants’ experiences: (1) how students believed their participation in the program affected their everyday life and well-being; (2) any factors that students perceived as affecting their participation; (3) recommendations for future iterations of the program. Using qualitative data from semi-structured interviews conducted with 18 of the college student participants, an applied thematic analysis was administered. This study also triangulates this data with open-ended responses from all 41 students who took the endline survey. Preliminary analyses indicate that students experienced positive psychosocial benefits from participating in the program. While they found support from the instructors and classmates facilitated their participation, time-and space-related barriers were hindrances. Recommendations include daily check-ins and reminders to practice, increasing class time dedicated to small-group discussion, and more flexible “home practice” requirements.

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays from 12 - 1 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present. 

Supply Chain Structure and the Rise of China's Electric Vehicle Industry

Speaker: Weiting Miao, Postdoctoral Scholar, Environmental Social Sciences, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability

China has emerged as the global leader in electric vehicles (EVs), with a substantial price advantage relative to other major economies. This research studies how the density and geographic proximity of the supply chain contribute to this advantage. Using transaction-level buyer–seller data from the Chinese auto industry, we show that supplier proximity increases matching probability and that greater input market thickness lowers input prices. Exploiting policy exposure as an instrument, we further document that shorter buyer–supplier distance reduces prices while improving quality. Motivated by these findings, we develop and estimate a structural model that integrates upstream matching and pricing with downstream competition under heterogeneous consumer demand. The model quantifies how alternative market structures affect equilibrium outcomes. When we adjust China’s supply chain and product structure to match the 2018 US market, EV parts costs increase by about 60%, final vehicle prices rise by roughly 50%, and sales decline by 57%.

About the Workshops

Our Young Researcher Workshops offer emerging China scholars an opportunity to engage directly with interdisciplinary faculty and peers from across campus to discuss and receive feedback on their research. Each workshop features one or several PhD students presenting their latest empirical findings on issues related to China’s economy. Past topics have included college major selection as an obstacle to socioeconomic mobility, the effect of a cooling-off period on marriage outcomes, and factors contributing to government corruption. Faculty and senior scholars provide comments and feedback for improvement. This event series helps to build and strengthen Stanford’s community of young researchers working on China.

Workshops are held on select Fridays from 12 - 1 pm. Lunch will be provided! 

Visit the Young Researcher Workshops webpage for more information on the content and format of the series and to learn how to sign up to present.