Zhexun Mo
zhexunmo.bsky.social
Zhexun Mo
@zhexunmo.bsky.social
Postdoc - @stone-lis.bsky.social | East Asia Coordinator - World Inequality Lab | Ph.D. - @pse.bsky.social | Political/Public Econ + Econ History + Development of China, East Asia and Africa | Chasing Inequalities 🏳️‍🌈 https://sites.google.com/view/zhexunmo
Pinned
🇩🇪💼🇨🇳
Amid rising China–EU tensions, how do Germans really see Chinese foreign investment?
And can facts, positive narratives, or negative narratives change those views?

We answer this using:
🧪 A survey experiment in SOEP-IS (N = 2,365)
🇨🇳 A mirrored national survey in China (N = 2,000)

🧵 A thread.
As China became the EU's largest trading partner, public concerns about the country's economic and political influence have grown. This new #WP looks at how German citizens perceive the opportunities and risks of engaging with China, and how much these perceptions align with reality.
bit.ly/4oJ7O8b
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
This is a very cool paper with a clever identification strategy to test the causal impact of the opioid epidemic on various political outcomes.

A key point that’s not in the abstract —causal mechanism is voters agreed with GOP tough on crime rhetoric and policy.
November 24, 2025 at 12:17 AM
🇩🇪💼🇨🇳
Amid rising China–EU tensions, how do Germans really see Chinese foreign investment?
And can facts, positive narratives, or negative narratives change those views?

We answer this using:
🧪 A survey experiment in SOEP-IS (N = 2,365)
🇨🇳 A mirrored national survey in China (N = 2,000)

🧵 A thread.
As China became the EU's largest trading partner, public concerns about the country's economic and political influence have grown. This new #WP looks at how German citizens perceive the opportunities and risks of engaging with China, and how much these perceptions align with reality.
bit.ly/4oJ7O8b
November 22, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
📢 We’re hiring!

King's College London Political Economy is recruiting an Assistant Professor (Lecturer in the UK system) in Economics.

Apply here: www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/130885-...

Feel free to contact me for information about the role and our department.

@kcl-spe.bsky.social @kingsqpe.bsky.social
Lecturer in Economics | King's College London
www.kcl.ac.uk
November 18, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Very excited to present ongoing work on the long shadow of French colonial army and military forced labor in Mali at the virtual workshop on French economic history online later!
📢 Virtual Workshop on French Economic History

At 5:00 pm CET, @zhexunmo.bsky.social (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, CUNY) will present:

“Soldiers versus Laborers: Legacies of Colonial Military Service and Forced Labor in Mali”

Interested in joining? Email me for the Zoom link.
November 18, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
📢 Virtual Workshop on French Economic History

At 5:00 pm CET, @zhexunmo.bsky.social (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, CUNY) will present:

“Soldiers versus Laborers: Legacies of Colonial Military Service and Forced Labor in Mali”

Interested in joining? Email me for the Zoom link.
November 18, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
Transformative national development (as opposed to nano-developmentalist nibbling at the margins) is the only way out of this. The sooner everyone is on the same page the better.
November 17, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
If an attractive young woman a third my age didn't want to date me, then why did she ask me for feedback on an economics paper?

by Larry Summers
November 17, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
🔴 Over 500 economists, including WIL co-director @thomaspiketty.bsky.social, call on world leaders to set up an International Panel on Inequality, as recommended by the Extraordinary Committee's report to the #G20, led by @josephestiglitz.bsky.social

🔗Letter www.equals.ink/p/sign-on-le...
November 14, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
Research shows strong public support for global climate & redistributive policies — and this new study by @adrien-fabre.bsky.social confirms it, through an original survey representative of the population in 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇮🇹 🇵🇱 🇪🇸 🇬🇧 🇨🇭 🇯🇵 🇷🇺 🇸🇦 🇺🇸

Read more: wid.world/news-article...
Public Acceptance of International Redistribution in High-Income Countries - WID - World Inequality Database
Public Acceptance of International Redistribution in High-Income Countries This paper examines the support for global redistribution policies through an original survey representative of the populatio...
wid.world
November 14, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
🚨Postdoc position in public economics🚨

Four-year postdoc at @heclausanne.bsky.social, funded through @snsf.ch project "The Economics of Inheritance and Inter-Vivos Gifts".
Application deadline: 30 December.

#econsky @unil.bsky.social @eyquem2.bsky.social @izmartinez86.bsky.social

bit.ly/4qWyG6G
Career Opportunities: Postdoctoral position in Public Economics (22572)
career5.successfactors.eu
November 10, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
Thank you, New York City. Together we made history.

Now let’s get to work.

transition2025.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
November 5, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
How does employer access to prisoners’ labor through work release impact the well-being of those workers & of free workers?

New working paper by Sue Helper, Suresh Naidu, Akseli Palomaki, Adam Reich, + me provides evidence, focus on auto manufacturing in AL
#EconSky
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
November 3, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
The US is the purple line bottoming out. Our economy may still roar, but we’re killing ourselves. Hoarding wealth, refusing to even ensure our kids have enough to eat. That line is an indictment. It reflects our warped values.
This graph never fails to be shocking: "The US has experienced the earliest and greatest slowdown in life expectancy improvements among higher-income countries, reported Eileen Crimmins. “We have horrible life expectancy—and it’s getting worse and worse”"

www.prb.org/resources/se...
November 1, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
New Working Paper by Stone Center postdoc Zhexun Mo, coauthored with Katharina Kaeppel, Carsten Schroder, and our Affiliated Scholar Li Yang. Their intriguing findings highlight asymmetry in German vs Chinese perceptions of the other's Foreign Direct Investments. @zhexunmo.bsky.social
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As China became the EU's largest trading partner, public concerns about the country's economic and political influence have grown. This new #WP looks at how German citizens perceive the opportunities and risks of engaging with China, and how much these perceptions align with reality.
bit.ly/4oJ7O8b
October 29, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Excited to share our new Stone Center WP! 🇩🇪📄
We survey how Germans perceive Chinese FDI: they overestimate it (~30% vs. ~1%) and view it less favorably than U.S./EU investment.
Three treatments (factual + narrative) shift views only slightly—deep attitudes persist.
As China became the EU's largest trading partner, public concerns about the country's economic and political influence have grown. This new #WP looks at how German citizens perceive the opportunities and risks of engaging with China, and how much these perceptions align with reality.
bit.ly/4oJ7O8b
October 29, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
Nouvelle étude de @yajnagovind.bsky.social @paolosantini.bsky.social & E. Derenoncourt confirme l’importance du facteur discriminatoire sur le marché du travail en 🇫🇷. Les minorités racisées subissent de fortes pénalités salariales. Être né.e en France réduit ces écarts, sans les faire disparaître.
Racial minorities in France face substantial earnings penalties, with Middle Eastern/North African and Sub-Saharan African individuals most affected. This is one of the key findings of a new study by @yajnagovind.bsky.social @paolosantini.bsky.social & E. Derenoncourt.

▶️ wid.world/news-article...
Racial minorities in France face substantial earnings penalties - WID - World Inequality Database
This study documents disparities in earnings and ranks across different minority groups in France and compare France with the US.
wid.world
October 1, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
Video is up! On Oct 7, 2025, our Stone Center hosted a panel on "AI and the Future of Work", featuring Daron Acemoglu, Paul Krugman, Danielle Li, and Zeynep Tufekci, moderated by Steven Greenhouse.
Quick summary:
Question: Should we be terrified of the future?
Answer: ... sort of...
👇👇👇
ICYMI, watch AI and the Future of Work feat. @dacemoglumit.bsky.social, prof. at MIT; @pkrugman.bsky.social, research prof. at CUNY Grad Center; Danielle Li, prof. at MIT; @zey.bsky.social, NY Times columnist & moderator Steven Greenhouse. Presented w/ @stone-lis.bsky.social - youtu.be/McYBgZrORi4
AI and the Future of Work
YouTube video by CUNY Graduate Center
youtu.be
October 28, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
There is a strong positive association between equality and development over the long run — that's what this new study based on our historical series available on wid.world is clearly showing.

Key findings in thread 🧵(1/9)👇
October 27, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
Does #equality promote #inclusion and #productivity, or hinder #growth❓

🔴Our new study revisits this long-running debate — finding a strong positive link between equality and development over the long run.

Read more▶️ wid.world/news-article...
Equality and Development: A Comparative & Historical Perspective 1800-2025 - WID - World Inequality Database
Equality and Development: A Comparative & Historical Perspective 1800-2025 This paper combines income and wealth inequality series from the World Inequality Database (WID) and new global series on hou...
wid.world
October 27, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
#Jihadists are threatening #Mali’s southern supply routes to Côte d'Ivoire, already attacking a tanker on the road from #Bamako to #Sikasso. If successful, that could further isolate Mali’s capital.

africa-conf.com/jihadists-ti...
Jihadists tighten their stranglehold
With critical gold mines in the Kayes region already under threat, the militants are now targeting critical commercial axes
africa-conf.com
October 27, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
To what degree did education & health access become more inclusive globally in recent decades? To answer this and other questions, this WP constructs a new historical database on public expenditure and revenue and their components covering all world regions over the 1800–2025 period.
bit.ly/3JlSBL2
October 24, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
August 20, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs

- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
Harvard FAS Cuts Ph.D. Seats By More Than Half Across Next Two Admissions Cycles | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for th...
www.thecrimson.com
October 21, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Zhexun Mo
"Shame!"

This word echoed across Canal Street as New Yorkers gathered to defend our neighbors from ICE.

Federal agents swarmed this commercial and cultural hub today, depriving vendors of due process and ripping them from their families—all because they tried to earn a living.
October 22, 2025 at 3:09 AM