Economic history & political economy

Zhao Dong

Assistant Professor in Economics
Trinity College Dublin

I am an economic historian studying long-run development and the political economy of institutions. My research combines historical national accounting with the analysis of elite recruitment, bureaucratic organisation and political trust, using imperial China as the principal empirical setting.

I am completing my DPhil in Economics at the University of Oxford, supervised by Stephen Broadberry and Sheilagh Ogilvie. I completed my viva in September 2026.

Curriculum vitae PDF Job market paper

Photograph: John Cairns

Research

Economic history · Political economy · Institutions

Job market paper

Loyalty, Competence, and the Allocation of Office under Threat

Evidence from Qing China

How does the kind of threat a state faces change which offices rulers give to politically connected insiders? Using annual records of provincial officials in Qing China, 1825–1911, I compare changes in the representation of the dynasty’s hereditary service elite following rebellions and foreign wars. Rebellion is followed by a rise in insiders’ representation among governors-general and governors; no comparable rise is detected after foreign war. The evidence is strongest for the provincial executive, while differences in the threat contrast across offices are not established.

Read paper PDF

Publications & forthcoming

Conquest and Patrimonialism in Imperial China: Elite Recruitment across Fifty-Five Dynasties, 221 BCE–1912 CE

Journal of Comparative Economics: Political Economy Forthcoming · Expected in Vol. 55 (2027)

The Political Economy of Noble Rank Proliferation in Imperial China

Cliometrica Forthcoming · Expected in Vol. 21, No. 3 (2027)

The Military Trap: Why Roman Emperors Died More Violently Than Chinese Emperors

Applied Economics Letters · Published online 3 June 2026

Published article

Working paper

Meritocratic Entry, Hereditary Rank Premium: Evidence from Qing China’s Bureaucracy

Asia-Pacific Economic History Review · Second-round R&R submitted

Ongoing research

Living Standards in Han China and the Roman Empire

Joint work with Stephen Broadberry and Hanhui Guan · Work in progress

We are developing a comparison of living standards in Han China and the Roman Empire using historical national accounting.

Teaching

Trinity College Dublin

2026–

Long Run Development (MSc)
Historical roots of differences in living standards across countries and regions. Topics include institutions, geography, culture, industrialisation and globalisation, with an emphasis on empirical research in economic history and development economics.
Economics Capstone: supervision of 12 undergraduate dissertations.

Somerville College, University of Oxford

2025–2026

Quantitative Economics (QE): tutorials in econometrics and statistical methods.

Brasenose College, University of Oxford

2022–2024

Graduate Teaching Assistant. Tutorials in Introductory Economics and Core Macroeconomics, including national income accounting, monetary and fiscal policy, and open-economy macroeconomics.

Curriculum vitae

Updated 25 October 2026

Download CV PDF

Data & code

My research draws on historical datasets covering elite recruitment across fifty-five Chinese dynasties (221 BCE–1912 CE), Qing provincial officials (1825–1911), and long-run living standards (2–1400 CE). Please contact me with questions about data and replication materials.

Contact

Department of Economics
Trinity College Dublin
Office: Room 3007, Arts Building
Dublin, Ireland

TCD: dongzh@tcd.ie
Oxford: zhao.dong@economics.ox.ac.uk