Assistant Professor Jian Xu received his PhD in Political Science from Emory University in 2021, and was a Pre-doctoral Fellow with the Democracy Program at The Carter Center from 2020 to 2021. He studies international and comparative political economy, focusing on government-business relations, the relationship between the rule of law and corruption, and the risk-mitigation strategies of multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in developing economies. His dissertation examines the impact of transnational legal regimes on the rent-seeking behavior of public and private actors.

His research on how political connections affect commercial lawsuit outcomes in China is published in Comparative Political Studies. His co-authored work on how MNCs’ political resources help mitigate the commitment problems in litigating in authoritarian courts received the David A. Lake Award for the Best Paper Presented at the 2019 IPES Conference. His paper on transnational anti-corruption regulation was nominated for the award of Georgetown Best Paper in International Business and Policy at the 2020 Academy of Management Annual Conference.

He is from China and received a Bachelor of Management degree from Zhejiang University, and an MA from Duke University.

International Political Economy
Global governance
Political risks in Foreign Direct Investment
Risk mitigation strategies of multi-national corporations
Government-business relations
Authoritarian judicial politics
Corruption and the rule of law

Xu, J. ‘The Role of Corporate Political Connections in Commercial Lawsuits: Evidence From Chinese Courts.’ Comparative Political Studies. 2020;53(14):2321-2358.

• Corruption and Anti-Corruption: Theories and Policies
• Quantitative Reasoning
• Global Governance
• Quantitative Methods in Global Affairs