Ben Guanyi Li

Associate Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA 01854.
benli36 at gmail dot com | office at HSS 461

PAPERS

"A Linear Model of Geopolitics" (with Penglong Zhang)

  • Current draft: [PDF]
  • Endogenous trade, endogenous borders, and endogenous politics

"Google and China's Trade" (with Cui Hu)

  • Current draft: [PDF]
  • Google is gone in presence, but present in trade

"Tariff Theories in a Trade War" (with Gary Lyn and Xing Xu)

  • Current draft: [PDF]
  • In theory, theory doesn’t matter; in practice, it should

"Corrupt Figures" (with Yushan Hu and Penglong Zhang)

  • Current draft: available upon request
  • Pun intended

"Trump, China, and the Republicans" (with Yi Lu, Pasquale Sgro, and Xing Xu)

  • Scandinavian Journal of Economics [LINK]
  • This long story is as short as 64 pages

"Territory Flows and Trade Flows between 1870 and 2008" (with Yushan Hu and Penglong Zhang)

  • Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization [LINK]
  • Goods flow so territories need not, achieving global peace and security

"Extreme Weather and Long-term Health" (with Wang-sheng Lee)

  • Journal of Health Economics [LINK]
  • Dusty data from two millennia of Chinese elites

"HIV Infections and Nightlight Luminosity" (with Pratibha Gautam)

  • Economics Letters [LINK]
  • "So shines a good deed in a weary world!" (Shakespeare, 1600)

"The Production Economics of the Economics Production" (with Yushan Hu)

  • Journal of Economics & Management Strategy [LINK]
  • Is economic knowledge produced in an economically efficient way?

"Alphabetic Norm and Research Output" (with Ang Li)

  • Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization [LINK]
  • Ang Li and Ben Li explain why economists use alphabetic author orders

"Lexicographic Bias in International Trade" (with Hua Cheng and Cui Hu)

"The Production Life Cycle" (with Yibei Liu)

  • Scandinavian Journal of Economics [LINK]
  • Products have life cycles (Raymond Vernon), and so do their production processes

"The Economics of Nationalism" (with Xiaohuan Lan)

  • American Economic Journal: Economic Policy [LINK]
  • Nationalism is a trade cost problem. Let us convince you, theoretically and empirically

"Shanghai's Trade, China's Growth" (with Wolfgang Keller and Carol Shiue)

  • IMF Economic Review [LINK]
  • Universal gravitation applies to Shanghai as well as to the solar system

"Multinational Production and Choice of Technologies"

  • Economics Letters [LINK]
  • Multinationals are biased, technologically

"Geographic Concentration and Vertical Disintegration" (with Yi Lu)

  • Journal of Urban Economics [LINK]
  • How about getting closer and buying more from each other

PAST

  • An assistant professor at Boston College (2011–18)
  • A doctoral student at University of Colorado (2005–11)
  • A graduate student at CCER, Peking University (2004–05)
  • A college student at Zhejiang University (2000–04)
  • A young man who keeps dreaming (19??–present)

PREACHING

  • Statistics I & II (fun and more fun)
  • Microeconomic theory (not fun but necessary)
  • International trade (fun globally)
  • Urban economics (fun locally)

PERSONAL