RESEARCH AREA
Firms, government, family, institutions, China
EMPLOYMENT
2018-present:
Mulan Distinguished Visiting Professor, National School of Development, Peking University.
2010-present:
Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank.
2002-2010:
Senior Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank.
2000-2002:
Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank.
1999-2000:
Economist, East Asian Region; the Young Professional Program, World Bank.
1996-1998:
Consultant, Research Dept., World Bank.
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Economics, University of Chicago, 1996.
B.A., M.A., Economics, Peking University, 1986, 1989.
PUBLISHED JOURNAL PAPERS IN ENGLISH
Knack, Stephen, Lixin Colin Xu. 2017. “Unbundling Institutions for External Finance: Worldwide Firm-Level Evidence.” Journal of Corporate Finance 44(C), 215-232.
Galiani, S., S. Knack, L.C. Xu, B. Zou. 2017. “The effect of aid on growth: Evidence from a quasi experiment.” Journal of Economic Growth 22(1), 1-33. Lead article. Featured in The Economist, August 16, 2014; listed in Easterly’s course on economic development in NYU, Fall, 2015; Kremer’s course on development at Harvard (2014); featured in VoX, in LSE’s IGC blog (www.theigc.org/blog/effect-of-aid-on-growth-evidence-from-a-quasi-experiment/), and the NBER Digest (www.nber.org/digest/jun16/w22164.html).
Huang, Zhangkai, Lixing Li, Guangrong Ma, L. Colin Xu. 2017. “Hayek, Local Information, and Commanding Heights: Decentralizing State-Owned Enterprises.” American Economic Review 107(8), 2455-2478. Media mentions in Financial Times (Chinese version), Sohu Finance, and PaperExpress.
Cull, Robert, L. Colin Xu, Xi Yang, Li-An Zhou, and Tian Zhu. 2017. “Government facilitation and firm efficiency.” Journal of Corporate Finance 42, 460-480.
“Love, Money, and Parental Goods: Does Parent Matchmaking Matter?” Journal of Comparative Economics. **Blogged by Wall Street Journal (2/12/2015); by Marginal Revolution, 2016/9/7. **Reported in China in 50-100 websites. **The blog on this article written for “Let’s Talk Development” was translated into French, Spanish, and Arabic.
**featured in NBER website front page, 9/28/2016.
Zhang, Jing, L. Colin Xu. 2016. “Water Quality and Education in a Brawn-Based Economy: The Rural Drinking Water Program in China,” Journal of Development Economics 122, 1-
15. Lead Article.
Lu, Yi, Huihua Xie, Lixin Colin Xu. 2016. “Telecom Externality on Migration: Evidence from Chinese Villages,” China Economic Review.
Goh, Chorching, Wei Li, Lixin Colin Xu. 2016. “R&D Returns, Spillovers and Firm Incentives: Evidence from China.” Frontiers of Economics in China, December.
Xu, Lixin Colin. 2016. “Cheung, Becker, and Marriage.” Man and the Economy 3(1), 65-76.
Clarke, George, Yue Li, and Lixin Colin Xu. 2016. “Business Environment, Economic Agglomeration, and Job Creation around the World.” Applied Economics.
Gao, Nan, Cheryl X. Long, Lixin Colin Xu. 2016. “Housing Prices and Standing Committee of China.” Review of Development Economics. Lead article.
George Clarke, Christine Z. Qiang, L. Colin Xu. 2015. “The Internet as a General-Purpose Technology.” Economics Letters 135, 24-27.
Cull, Robert, Wei Li, Bo Sun, Lixin Colin Xu. 2015. “Banks, the Government, and Financial Constraint: Evidence from a Large Sample of Chinese Firms,” Journal of Corporate
Finance 32(C)， 271-294.
Harrison, Ann, Justin Y. Lin, Lixin Colin Xu. 2014. “Explaining Africa’s (Dis)advantage”, World Development 63, 59-77. November. *Listed in Chris Blattman’s syllabus on development.
Zhang, Jing, Li Gan, L. Colin Xu, Yang Yao. 2014. “Health Shocks, Village Elections, and Long-Term Income: Evidence from Rural China,” China Economic Review.
Cull, Robert, Lixin Colin Xu. 2013. "Job growth and finance: Are some financial institutions better suited to early stages of development than others?” World Bank Economic Review.
Lederman, Daniel, Taye Mengistae, Lixin Colin Xu. 2013. “Microeconomic Consequences and Macroeconomic Causes of Foreign Direct Investment in Southern African Economies,” Applied Economics 45(25), 3637-3649.
Gan, Li, Lixin Colin Xu, and Yang Yao. 2012. "Risk Sharing and Local Elections: Evidence from Chinese Villages," Economics of Transition 20(3), July, 521-547.
Wang, Xiaozu, Lixin Colin Xu, Tian Zhu. 2012. “Foreign Direct Investment under a Weak Rule of Law: Theory and Evidence from China.” Economics of Transition 20(3), July, 401- 424, Lead article.
Huang, Fali, Ginger Z. Jin, Lixin Colin Xu. 2012. “Love and Money by Parental Matchmaking: Evidence from Urban Couples in China.” American Economic Review (Papers and Proceedings), 102(3), 555-560. **Appeared in a syllabus in UCSD.
Li, Wei, Taye Mengistae, and Lixin Colin Xu. 2011. “Diagnosing Development Bottlenecks: China and India," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 73(6), 722-752, December. Lead article.
Xu, Lixin Colin. 2011. "The Effects of Business Environments on Development: A Survey of New Firm-Level Evidence,” World Bank Research Observer 26 (2), 310-340, August.
Cai, Hongbin, Hanming Fang, Lixin Colin Xu. 2011. “Eat, Drink, Firms, Government: An Investigation of Corruption from Entertainment and Travel Costs of Chinese Firms.” Journal of Law and Economics 54, 55-78, February. **Pioneered the eat-drink index of corruption.
Chen, Qingqing, Chorching Goh, Bo Sun, Lixin Colin Xu. 2011. “Market Integration in China: A Survey.” Asian Development Review 28(1), 72-93.
Dong, Xiao-Yuan, Lixin Colin Xu. 2009. “Labor Restructuring in China's Industrial Sector: Toward a Functioning Urban Labor Market”. Journal of Comparative Economics 37(2), 287-305.
Cull, Robert, Lixin Colin Xu, Tian Zhu. 2009. "Formal Finance and Trade Credit During China's Transition," Journal of Financial Intermediation 18(2), April, pp. 173-192.
Fan, Joseph, Randall Morck, Lixin Colin Xu, Bernard Yeung. 2009. "Institutions and Foreign Direct Investment: China vs. the Rest of the World", World Development 37 (4), pp. 852-865.
Dong, Xiao-Yuan, Lixin Colin Xu. 2008. “The Impact of China’s Millennium Labor Restructuring Program on Firm Performance and Employee Earnings." Economics of Transition 16(2), 223-245.
Hallward-Driemeier, Mary, Scott Wallsten, Lixin Colin Xu. 2006. "The Investment Climate and the Firm: Firm-Level Evidence from China" Economics of Transition, 13(1), 1-24.
Clarke, George, Lixin Colin Xu, Heng-Fu Zou. 2006. "Finance and Income Inequality:
What do the data tell us?” Southern Economic Journal 72, 578-596. **Perhaps the first paper linking finance and inequality empirically. **The most cited paper in SEJ for its post- 2006 articles.
Bai, Chong-En, Lixin Colin Xu. 2005. “The System of Incentives for Managers with Multitasks: Theory and Evidence from Chinese State-Owned Enterprises,” Journal of Comparative Economics, 33(3), 517-539.
Cull, Robert, Lixin Colin Xu. 2005. “Institutions, Ownership, and Finance: The Determinants of Investment among Chinese Firms,” Journal of Financial Economics 77, 117-146. **Reprinted in Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries (forthcoming). Elgar Reference Collection, International Library of Entrepreneurship, Eds by T. Beck.
Li, Wei, Christine Z. Qiang, Lixin Colin Xu. 2005. “Deregulating the telecommunications sector in developing countries: The role of democracy and interest groups” World Development 33(8), 1307-24.
Jiang, Minghua, Lixin Colin Xu. 2005. “Medals in Transition: Explaining Medal Performance and Inequality of Chinese Provinces”, Journal of Comparative Economics 33, 158-72.
Xu, Lixin Colin, Tian Zhu, Yi-Min Lin. 2005. “Politician Control, Agency Problems, and Ownership Reform: Evidence from China” Economics of Transition 13(1), 1-24. Lead article. Reprinted in The Revival of Private Enterprise in China, eds. by S. Lin and S. Song, Ashgate, 2007.
Li, Wei, Lixin Colin Xu 2004. “The Impact of Privatization and Competition in the Telecommunications Sector around the World?” Journal of Law and Economics XLVII (2), 395-430. **Cited extensively by a textbook on privatization (Megginson, 2005).
Clarke, George, Lixin Colin Xu. 2004. “Privatization, Competition, and Corruption: How Characteristics of Bribe Takers and Payers Affect Bribe Payments to Utilities,” Journal of Public Economics 88 (9-10), 2067-97.
Mengistae, Taye, Lixin Colin Xu. 2004. “Agency Theory and Executive Compensation: The Case of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises,” Journal of Labor Economics, 22(3), 615- 38.
Wallsten, S., G. Clarke, L. Haggarty, R. Kaneshiro,R. Noll, M. Shirley, L.C. Xu. 2004. “New Tools for Studying Network Industry Reforms in Developing Countries: The Telecom and Electricity Regulation Database” Review of Network Economics 3(3), 248-82Wang, Xiaozu, Lixin Colin Xu, Tian Zhu. 2004. “State-Owned Enterprises Going Public: The Case of China” Economics of Transition, 12, 467-87.
Cull, Robert, and Lixin Colin Xu. 2003. “Who Gets Credit? The Behavior of Bureaucrats and State Banks in Allocating Credit to Chinese SOEs,” Journal of Development Economics 71, 533-559.
Xu, Lixin Colin, Christine Qiang, Limin Wang. 2003. “The Timing of Marriage in China,”Annals of Economics and Finance.
Hotz, V. Joseph, Lixin Colin Xu, Avner Ahituv, Marta Tienda. 2002. “Are There Returns to the Wages of Young Men from Working While in School?” Review of Economics and Statistics 84(2), p. 221-36.
Li, Wei, Lixin Colin Xu. 2002. “The Political Economy of Telecom Privatization and Competition” Journal of Comparative Economics, 30(3), 439-62. **Appeared in a syllabus at U Michigan.Shirley, Mary, Lixin Colin Xu. 2001. “The Empirical Effects of Performance Contracts,”
Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 17(1), 168-200.
Cull, Robert, Lixin Colin Xu. 2000. “Bureaucrats, State Banks, and the Efficiency of Credit Allocation: The Experience of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises,” Journal of Comparative Economics 28, 1-31. Lead article.
Li, Hongyi, Lixin Colin Xu, Heng-Fu Zou. 2000. “Corruption, Income Distribution, and Growth,” Economics and Politics, 12(2), 155-82. One of the journal’s top cited papers. Also listed in a syllabus of Columbia University.
Xu, Lixin Colin. 2000. “Control, Incentives, and Competition: The Impact of Reform in Chinese State-Owned Enterprises,” Economics of Transition 8(1), 151-73.
Claessens, Stijn, Djankov Simeon, Lixin Colin Xu. 2000. “East Asian Corporations, Before and During the Recent Financial Crisis,” World Bank Research Observer, 15(1), 23-46.
Xu, Lixin Colin, Heng-Fu Zou. 2000. “Explaining the Change of Income Distribution in China,” China Economic Review 11, 1-22.
Shirley, Mary, Lixin Colin Xu. 1998. “Information, Incentive, and Commitment,” Journal of Law, Economics and Organization 14(2), 358-78. Reprinted in Contracts in the New Institutional Economics (2004): 357-77. Elgar Reference Collection, International Library of the New Institutional Economics, vol. 3. Cheltenham, U.K. and Northamption, Mass.: Elgar, 2004. (Other authors in this volume include Williamson, Tirole, Milgrom, Libecap, Klein, Joskow, and Nee.)
Xu, Lixin Colin. 1998. “Determinants of the Re-Partitioning of Property Rights Between the Government and State Enterprises,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, 46(3), 537-560.
COMPLETED OR NEARLY COMPLETED WORKING PAPERS
Cull, Robert, Li Gan, Nan Gao, and L. Colin Xu. 2015. “Dual credit markets and household access to finance: Evidence from a representative Chinese household survey,” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 7454. R&R at Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Finance.
“The Dark Side of Financial Disclosure.” (With Tingting Liu, Barkat Ullah, Zuobao Wei). Submitted. R&R at Journal of Financial Reporting.
“Informal finance and household consumption in China,” (with R. Cull, Li Gan, Nan Gao). R&R at Journal of Banking and Finance.
“Power Struggles and Pork Barrel Politics with Chinese Characteristics,” (with Nan Gao and Pinghang Liang). Under submission.
“The Heterogeneous Growth Effects of the Business Environment: Evidence from a Global Sample of Cities.” With Jose-Daniel Reyes and Mark Roberts. Under submission.
PUBLICATIONS IN CHINESE, BOOK CHAPTERS
林毅夫，徐立新。“金融结构与经济发展相关性的最新进展”。《金融监管研究》，2012 年 4 月。
刘冲，周黎安，徐立新。2013。“高速公路可达性对城乡居民收入差距的影响：来自中国县级水平的证据。” 经济研究 554（48），53-64。
Lin, Justin Yifu, and Lixin Colin Xu. 2012. “Financial Structure and Economic Development.” In Justin Y. Lin, New Structural Economics: A Framework for Rethinking Development and Policy, pp. 259-284, World Bank, Washington, DC.
Commnts on "capital and its complements in economic growth," by J. Bradford Delong, in Jane S. Little eds., Global Imblances and the Evolving World Economy, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, 2008, p. 221-233.
"Comparative Advantage and Trade Intensity: Are Traditional Endowments Destiny?" with D. Lederman. in D. Lederman and W.F. Maloney, editors, Neither Curse Nor Destiny: Natural Resources and Development. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. 2006.
“Investment Climate in China—The Tale of Five Cities,” with D. Dollar, M. Hallward-Driemeier,
A. Shi, S. Wallsten, and S. Wang, Transition Letters 14, July-September 2003.
“Reforming the Urban Water System in Santiago, Chile” with M. Shirley and A. Zuluaga, in Thirsting for Efficiency: Experiences in Reforming Urban Water System (edited by M. Shirley). Oxford, England: Elsevier Press, 2002.
“Institutions, Politics, and Contracts: The Attempt to Privatize the Water and Sanitation Utility of Lima, Peru,” with L. Alcarza & A. Zuluaga, in Thirsting for Efficiency: Experiences in Reforming Urban Water System (edited by M. Shirley). Oxford, England: Elsevier Press, 2002.
“Regional Protectionism in China: Direct Micro Evidence,” (with Binglin Gong and Kong-Yam Tan), China Journal of Economics, December 2005.
“City and firm competitiveness of Liaoning Province” (with Shuilin Wang, David Dollar et al.). Comparative Economic and Social System (经济社会体制比较), 2005. 1-12.
Improving City Competitiveness through the Investment Climate: Ranking 23 Chinese Cities (year 2003). (With David Dollar, Shuilin Wang, Anqing Shi.) Beijing: The Chinese Finance and Economics Press, 2003.
“China’s Investment Climate,” With Shuilin Wang, D. Dollar, A. Shi, Comparative Economic and Social System (经济社会体制比较), 107(3), 2003, 24-34.
"Surveying surveys and Questioning Questions,” with F. Recanatini and S. Wallsten. China Economic Quarterly (中国经济季刊) 2(1), 89-104, 2002.
“State-Owned Enterprises, Labor Redundancy, and Job Creation: The Experience of the Chinese Provinces,” with G. Li, China Economic Quarterly (中国经济季刊) 1(1), 2001.
“Racial and Ethnic Variations in First Labor Market Encounter,” with V. J. Hotz, A. Ahituv, M. Tienda, The Industrial Relation Research Association Proceedings, 256-265, 1994.
