Li Duan

Duan Li is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economic History, School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. His primary research interests lie in economic history and development economics. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, with a double major in Economics and History, followed by a master’s degree from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the HKU Business School, University of Hong Kong. His research employs quantitative methods to investigate knowledge production, human capital accumulation, and technological development in historical China. For instance, he applied econometric techniques to analyze how the imperial examination system influenced the reallocation of talent during China’s early industrialization, with findings published in the Journal of Development Economics. His current working papers focus on two main areas: first, the diffusion pathways and mechanisms of new industrial knowledge during China’s early industrialization; second, the emergence and evolution of the political “Enlightenment Movement” among Chinese intellectual elites during the transition from the late Qing to the Republican period. Additionally, he leads a research project that utilizes machine learning and generative artificial intelligence to construct structured historical databases, aiming to explore novel applications of AI in the study of Chinese economic history.