SCCEI Seminar Series (Winter 2026)

Friday, March 6, 2026 | 12:00 pm -1:20 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way

Enlightenment Under Autocracy: The Origins of Liberalism in China

This paper studies how ideas emphasizing individual moral agency diffuse and shape political behavior under autocracy by tracing the spread of Wang Yangming’s School of Mind in late imperial China. Using a new dataset of over 24,000 historical texts from 1000 to 1900, we measure regional exposure with two indicators: the frequency of core concepts and the count of associated authors. We also introduce a semantic-similarity measure that compares local texts to Yangming’s writings. A difference-in-differences design shows a sharp post-1500 rise in exposure, concentrated in places with stronger lecture influence. Prefectures with higher exposure were more likely to produce reformist leaders in the Donglin Movement (1604–1627). Using contemporary survey data from 2010 and a matched-sample approach, we further document long-run persistence. Residents in historically exposed prefectures express stronger support for the right to discuss public affairs and for limiting government involvement in private affairs. Together, the results link the diffusion of Yangming learning to reformist mobilization among elites and to durable attitudes toward political voice and the appropriate scope of government.

About the Speaker 
 

Professor Melanie Meng Xue is Assistant Professor of Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Research Affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. Her research lies at the intersection of political economy, gender, culture, and economic history, with a regional focus on early modern and modern China. Her work explores the rise of women, the persistence of authoritarian regimes, and the long-term impact of affirmative action and cultural values on economic and political inequality.

Her articles examine topics such as folklore and proverbs as sources of cultural transmission, and she is currently working on a book project analyzing cultural values across ethnic groups and regions in China. Professor Xue has published widely, and her research has influenced both academic and public discourse on the role of historical narratives and norms in shaping institutional development. She received her Ph.D. in Economics and has mentored research assistants who have gone on to top Ph.D. and pre-doctoral programs. During the 2025–26 academic year, she will be on sabbatical, spending the fall semester at Yale University.

Questions? Contact Xinmin Zhao at xinminzhao@stanford.edu
 

This event has been cancelled.

We hope to see you at another SCCEI event soon!

SCCEI Seminar Series (Winter 2026)

Friday, February 20, 2026 | 12:00 pm -1:20 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way

Competitive Human Capital Investment: Evidence from Housing Prices and Educational Expenditures

The hypothesis of competitive human capital investment posits that one important motivation for parents to invest in their children’s education is to help them to develop an advantage in their future dating and marriage market. If ownership of certain housing conveys a right to access to high-quality educational resources, a “good-school” premium is embedded in the prices of such home ownership. The size of the premium may reflect the degree of local marriage market competition. We investigate such an effect using housing prices and the location of top schools in 33 Chinese cities. We find robust evidence that the local sex ratio of the youth cohort is a strong predictor for the size of the local “good school” premium. We also find that the households from cities with a higher sex ratio are more willing to spend on children’s education, especially for sons.

Please register for the event to receive email reminders and add it to your calendar. Lunch will be provided.

About the Speaker 
 

Professor Shang-Jin Wei is the N.T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy at Columbia University, with joint appointments in the Graduate School of Business and the School of International and Public Affairs. A leading expert on international finance, trade, and macroeconomics, his research focuses on globalization and the Chinese economy. His work has been published in top journals, including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, and the Journal of Finance.

From 2014 to 2016, Professor Wei served as Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank, where he led economic research and policy support for regional cooperation initiatives. He previously held positions at the International Monetary Fund, Harvard University, the Brookings Institution, and the World Bank. He is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Sun Yefang Prize, the Zhang Peifang Prize, and the Gregory Chow Award. He received his Ph.D. in Economics and M.S. in Finance from the University of California, Berkeley.
 

Questions? Contact Xinmin Zhao at xinminzhao@stanford.edu
 

About the event: International relations scholars have long studied how technological shifts impact the course of wars, especially as armies are forced to innovate on the battlefield. From the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, SpaceX’s Starlink service (a private company) has played a vital infrastructure role for Ukraine’s military, something it was never envisioned or designed to do. In addition, in contrast with past conflicts, Starlink’s major policy choices are primarily controlled by a single individual – Elon Musk –  who has his own political preferences and agenda, distinct from the U.S. or other countries. We leverage a natural experiment to ascertain the effect of Starlink access for Ukrainian forces on battlefield outcomes. We leverage a geographic discontinuity to determine the overall effect of access to Starlink on Ukraine’s territorial control as well as overall volume of munitions and combat activities. The design relies on an idiosyncratic mismatch between SpaceX’s internal system (which uses fixed hexagon shapes) for allocating access and the actual boundaries of the frontline and Ukraine’s provinces. Second, we use a difference-in-differences approach to examine how Starlink access mattered before and after a late 2022 policy change at SpaceX decided personally by Elon Musk to limit Starlink access to Ukrainian forces in certain areas and for certain activities. Initial findings are that Starlink access significantly improves Ukraine’s ability to hold territory, though it appears not to greatly affect the volume of drones, artillery or other munitions. The results suggest Starlink mostly affects quality of strikes rather than quantity. 

Co-authored with Tatsuya Koyama and Yuri Zhukov.

About the speaker: Renard Sexton is a Visiting Scholar at CISAC and an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Emory University.

Sexton studies conflict and development with a focus on local level violence and interventions intended to curb violence. His research covers insurgency, terrorism, social conflict around natural resources, and police crackdowns; he has regional expertise in Afghanistan, Southeast Asia and Andean Latin America. His research has been published in top scholarly journals, including the American Political Science Review and American Journal of Political Science. His policy pieces and commentary have been published by The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, International Crisis Group, Foreign Policy and other outlets. Before joining Emory, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University and Economics of Conflict fellow at the International Crisis Group.

 All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

No filming or recording without express permission from speaker.

SCCEI Seminar Series (Winter 2026)

Friday, January 30, 2026 | 12:00 pm -1:20 pm Pacific Time
Goldman Room E409, Encina Hall, 616 Jane Stanford Way

Energy Management and Systems Change in Factories and Supply Chains in China

In China, manufacturing energy use and industrial processes are economically important but are also responsible for approximately 60% of the country's greenhouse gas emissions and cause local environmental harm. This paper develops a framework for studying the multifaceted impacts of production systems and possible interventions to reduce them, then examines the empirical evidence of effectiveness. We apply this framework to iron and steel production, downstream metal components manufacturing, and automotive assembly, relying whenever possible on observations of decision-making in factories. The talk will conclude by discussing how existing incentives interact to influence the pace and direction of progress in addressing sustainability impacts across the supply chain. 

Please register for the event to receive email reminders and add it to your calendar. Lunch will be provided.

About the Speaker 
 

Valerie Karplus is a professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy and associate director at the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University.

Karplus studies resource and environmental management in organizations operating in diverse national and industry contexts, with a focus on the role of institutions and management practices in explaining performance. Areas of expertise include innovation in global corporate and industrial supply chains, regional approaches to workforce and economic revitalization, and the integrated design and evaluation of public policies. Karplus has taught courses on public policy analysis, global business strategy and organization, entrepreneurship, and the political economy of energy transitions. At CMU, she runs the Laboratory for Energy and OrganizationsOpens in new window. Karplus is also a faculty affiliate of the MIT Energy InitiativeOpens in new window, the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy ResearchOpens in new window, and the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy.

She has previously worked in the development policy section of the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, Germany, as a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow, and in the biotechnology industry in Beijing, China, as a Luce Scholar. From 2011 to 2016, she co-founded and directed the MIT-Tsinghua China Energy and Climate Project a five-year research effort focused on analyzing the design of energy and climate change policy in China, and its domestic and global impacts. Karplus previously served on the faculty at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Karplus holds a BS in biochemistry and political science from Yale University and a Ph.D. in engineering systems from MIT.

Questions? Contact Xinmin Zhao at xinminzhao@stanford.edu
 

SCCEI Seminar Series (Winter 2026)

Friday, February 13, 2026 | 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. 
 

From Empire to Nation-State: Aspirational Nation-Building in China

The rise of nation-states was one of the most transformative developments of the 20th century. What drives nation-building? Existing theories emphasize enmity: external threats provoke fear, humiliation, and hostility, hardening national identity through opposition. We propose an aspirational theory of nation-building, highlighting a parallel mechanism—emulation. Under threat, elites not only rally against foreign powers; they also look outward with admiration, comparing their nation to more successful states and seeking to close the gap. This forward-looking ambition can transform crisis into reform.

We test this theory by analyzing China’s transition from empire to nation-state (1872–1911), using two original datasets: a complete collection of newspaper titles and full-text articles from Shen Bao, the most influential publication of the period. We find that emulation—particularly of culturally proximate powers like Japan—consistently outweighed enmity. War sparked temporary surges in antagonism, but emulation quickly returned. This article contributes to scholarship on nation-building and state formation.

Please register for the event to receive email updates and add it to your calendar. Lunch will be provided.

About the Speaker 
 

Peng Peng is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and Global Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Previously, she was a postdoctoral research associate at the Macmillan Center, Yale University (July 2022 - June 2024). She received her doctoral degree from the Department of Political Science at Duke University in December 2022. Before that, she completed a dual master's program in International Affairs from Paris School of International Affairs of Sciences Po Paris and School of International Relations of Peking University, and she earned her BA from Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Peng Peng studies state-building, nation-building, and political economy of development. Much of her work focuses on the role of political elites in shaping state development and national identity. Her work combines quantitative methods with extensive qualitative archival research. She teaches courses on state building and Chinese politics.

Questions? Contact Xinmin Zhao at xinminzhao@stanford.edu
 

In 2024, a group of esteemed scientists publicly warned that a bacteria created entirely with mirror-image biomolecules ("mirror bacteria")—though still years away—could potentially wipe out all life on earth. Gene editing techniques open possibilities of other risks that might be intentionally generated by bad actors, such as bacteria that are immune to all antibiotics and viruses which are engineered to be highly transmissible and deadly. What policies will protect global health from these serious threats while also preserving the potential therapeutic value of manipulated molecules? Please join two leading Stanford experts for a fascinating discussion of a rapidly emerging set of high-stakes scientific, ethical, and regulatory challenges.

Speakers: 

David Relman, MD, the Thomas C. and Joan M. Merigan Professor in Medicine, Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, and Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. Relman was an early pioneer in the identification of previously unrecognized microbial pathogens, in the development of molecular methods for microbial diagnosis, and in the modern study of the human microbiome.

Henry T. (Hank) Greely, JD, is the Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law; Professor, by courtesy, of Genetics; and Director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University.  He specializes in ethical, legal, and social issues arising from the biosciences, particularly genetics, neuroscience, stem cell research, and assisted reproduction.  He is a founder and a past president of the International Neuroethics Society and chairs the California Advisory Committee on Human Stem Cell Research. 

The Europe Center, with support of the Stanford Club of Germany, sponsors summer research visits and internships with German companies and research institutions. Selected graduate students spend 8-12 weeks in Germany pursuing projects such as lab exchanges, artists-in-residence, and collaborative research.

• Students identify target institutions based on curricular expertise and career goals; GRIP provides support in negotiating hosting arrangements.
• While not required, priority is given to students who have identified an internship/research host prior to applying.
• Applicants are encouraged to consider the full range of potential hosts, from startups to established industry players to research institutions.
• Exact start and end dates are determined by the host and student.
• Grants of $8000-$9,000 (prorated by length of travel) are awarded with each internship/research visit.