Notice! Recently, I discovered that some researchers have plagiarized my papers, including translating them into Chinese. Therefore, I have decided to stop uploading my working papers to the internet until they are accepted by a journal.
Publications
“Cross-Border Data Flows and Economics Growth: Theoretical Framework and Empirical Evidence” (in Chinese, 数据跨境流动与经济增长：理论框架与实证证据), with Liyong Wang, Qing Chang, and Jinglei Huang, corresponding author, Economic Research Journal (经济研究), 2026, 2, 119-141.
We provide an N-country model of the data economy and some empirical evidences on the relationship between cross-border data flows and economic growth.
“Endogenous Growth and Human Capital Accumulation in a Data Economy”, with Qing Chang and Mengtao Wu. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 2024, 69, 298-312.
2024 ESI Highly Cited Paper in Economics & Business
We propose an endogenous growth model that illustrates the policy effects of data when incorporated into human capital accumulation.
“Research on a New Mode of Human Capital Accumulation in the Digital Economy” (in Chinese, 数字经济背景下的人力资本积累新模式探究), Corresponding author, with Mengtao Wu and Kangping Wu. China Journal of Economics (经济学报), 2023, 10(2), 1-27.
We propose a short-run dynamic general equilibrium model to demonstrate the effects of data on human capital accumulation.
“The Evolution of Monetary Rules with Financial Stability Consideration”, with Yao Hou, Rong Li, Danxia Xie, and Qingquan Zhang. Applied Economics, 2023, 55(45), 5267-5286.
We compare the differing attitudes towards financial stability in determining monetary policy rules between China and the United States.
“Endogenous Growth Under Multiple Uses of Data”, with Lin William Cong, Wenshi Wei, and Danxia Xie. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 2022, 141, 104395.
We integrate the frameworks of Jones and Tonetti (2020) and Cong et al. (2021) to analyze the joint effects of data entering both production and innovation processes.
“Knowledge Accumulation, Privacy, and Growth in a Data Economy”, 2021, with Lin William Cong and Danxia Xie. Management Science, 2021, 67(10), 6480-6492.
We propose an endogenous growth model that focuses on the privacy effects of data in the innovation process.
Books
“Data Factor, Data Privacy Protection, and Economic Growth” (in Chinese, 数据要素、数据隐私保护与经济增长), single author, July, 2024, Shanghai Joint Publishing Company (上海三联书店). ISBN: 978-7-5426-8503-2.
This book is revised from my Ph.D. dissertation, which presents an initial model of data in long-run economic growth.
Working Papers Received R&R
“Production, Trade, and Cross-Border Data Flows”, with Qing Chang, Lin William Cong, and Liyong Wang (SSRN #4241665).
Best Paper Awards at 2025 Financial Management Association (FMA) Annual Meeting.
This is the FIRST paper analyzing cross-border data flows theoretically.
“Contagion, Migration, and Misallocation in a Pandemic”, with Qing Chang, Ke Tang, and Danxia Xie (SSRN #3779278).
We present a multi-city migration model to study the endogenous choices of migration during a pandemic and evaluate various policy alternatives, and extend the misallocation framework with cross-region contagion and externality.
“From Consumption to Production: A Generalized Model of Growth for the Data Economy”, with Danxia Xie (SSRN #4033576).
We propose a generalized model of growth in the data economy, highlighting the characteristics describing a spectrum of data types that can lead to different long-term effects.
Working Papers
“The Rise and Fall of Labor Share During Structural Transformations”, with Qing Chang and Danxia Xie (SSRN #3464728).
We find that the labor share exhibits a cubic relationship with real GDP per capita over the course of economic development.
“Generative AI, Data Quality, and Growth”, with Qing Chang and Danxia Xie (SSRN #5223738).
We investigate Generative AI from the perspective of data quality, and focus on its long run impact on economic growth.
“Computing Power, Synthetic Data, and Welfare in the Generative-AI Economy”, with Qing Chang and Danxia Xie.
We develop a dynamic general-equilibrium model in which consumer data and compute protect data quality while the accumulated stock of synthetic data erodes it.
“The Long-Term Evolution of Data Factor Markets: A Privacy Protection Perspective” (in Chinese, 数据要素市场的长期演化机理：隐私保护视角), with Qing Chang.
We build an endogenous growth model with both the digital ecnomy sector and the privacy protection sector, and describe the evolution of data factor market and privacy regimes in the long term.
“Do Firms Still Need Foreign Markets for Data? Generative AI, Synthetic Data, and Knowledge Reshoring”, with Qing Chang.
Using the 2022 breakthrough in generative AI as an exogenous shock and a panel of 3,675 US-listed firms over 2015-2025, we find that AI-capable firms reduced new foreign subsidiary establishment by approximately 55% relative to the pre-treatment mean.
ZHANG Longtian 