Dr Chao-yo Cheng
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Overview
Overview
Biography
Dr Chao-yo Cheng is a Lecturer in Quantitative Political and Social Research. He is also the Director of Birkbeck's Postgraduate Social Research Programmes. His work applies various computational, quantitative and qualitative methods to address a wide range of topics in the political economy of development and institutions. Before coming to Birkbeck, Chao-yo held fellowship positions at Tsinghua University (Beijing) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Office hours
Friday 3-5pm during the academic year (please email or use this link to make an appointment).
Qualifications
Web profiles
Visiting posts
- Visiting Assistant Professor, University of International Business and Economics, 07-2022
Professional activities
Editorial Advisory Panel, Public Administration and Development (PAD)
Young Editorial Board Member, Asian Review of Political Economy (ARPE)
ORCID
0000-0002-4488-2450 -
Research
Research
Research interests
- Race, ethnicity, and politics
- Comparative authoritarianism
- Political economy of development and institutions
- Public policy and politics of Asia (China, India, and Southeast Asia)
- Computational social science
- Formal theory and quantitative methodology
Research Centres and Institutes
- Co-Director, Centre for Political Economy and Institutional Studies
- Member, Birkbeck Research Centre in Environment and Sustainability
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
I am happy to work with students using innovative computational, quantitative, and qualitative methods to study various topics in the political economy of development and institutions, such as
- democracy and authoritarianism,
- institutions and organizational behavior,
- local governance, intergovernmental relations and state building,
- race, ethnicity and politics,
- poverty and inequality, and
- the politics of government responsiveness.
Students can examine single-country and/or comparative cases in the Global South, using contemporary and/or historical perspectives. I will assist in placing their research within a comprehensive theoretical framework.
Teaching
Teaching modules
- Masterclass in Social Research (SSPO019S7)
- Advanced Topics in Quantitative Social Research (SSPO241H7)
- Investigating the Social World (SSPO263S7)
- Chinese Politics in Comparative Perspective (SSPO273S6)
- democracy and authoritarianism,
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Cheng, Chao-Yo and Noh, Y. (2024) Electoral institutions and repression in dictatorships. Electoral Studies 89 (102791), ISSN 0261-3794.
- Cheng, Chao-Yo and Lin, Y.-T. (2023) Ethnic ties, organized opposition and voter defection in authoritarian elections. Government and Opposition 58 (3), pp. 497-515. ISSN 0017-257X.
- Ma, C. and Cheng, Chao-Yo and Haibo, H. (2022) From local to upper capture: the Chinese experiment of administrative courts. China Review 22 (3), pp. 9-46. ISSN 1680-2012.
- Cheng, Chao-Yo (2021) Poverty alleviation and state building in peripheral areas: evidence from China. Japanese Journal of Political Science 22 (4), pp. 312-332. ISSN 1468-1099.
- Dai, Y. and Li, Y. and Cheng, Chao-Yo and Zhao, H. and Meng, T. (2021) Government-led or public-led? Chinese policy agenda setting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice 23 (2), pp. 157-175. ISSN 1387-6988.
- Cheng, Chao-Yo and Lee, Y.J. and Murray, G. and Noh, Y. and Urpelainen, J. and Van Horn, J. (2020) Vested interests: examining the political obstacles to power sector reform in twenty Indian states. Energy Research & Social Science 70, pp. 101766. ISSN 2214-6296.
- Aklin, M. and Cheng, Chao-Yo and Urpelainen, J. (2020) Inequality in policy implementation: caste and electrification in rural India. Journal of Public Policy 41 (2), pp. 331-359. ISSN 0143-814X.
- Cheng, Chao-Yo and Urpelainen, J. (2019) Criminal politicians and socioeconomic development: evidence from rural India. Studies in Comparative International Development 54 (4), pp. 501-527. ISSN 0039-3606.
- Aklin, M. and Cheng, Chao-Yo and Urpelainen, J. (2018) Social acceptance of new energy technology in developing countries: A framing experiment in rural India. Energy Policy 113, pp. 466-477. ISSN 0301-4215.
- Aklin, M. and Cheng, Chao-Yo and Urpelainen, J. (2018) Geography, community, household: adoption of distributed solar power across India. Energy for Sustainable Development 42, pp. 54-63. ISSN 0973-0826.
- Aklin, M. and Cheng, Chao-Yo and Urpelainen, J. and Ganesan, K. and Jain, A. (2016) Factors affecting household satisfaction with electricity supply in rural India. Nature Energy 1 (11), ISSN 2058-7546.
- Cheng, Chao-Yo and Urpelainen, J. (2016) Unawareness and indifference to economic reform among the public: evidence from India’s power sector reform. Economics of Governance 17 (3), pp. 211-239. ISSN 1435-6104.
- Chen, D. and Cheng, Chao-Yo and Urpelainen, J. (2016) Support for renewable energy in China: a survey experiment with internet users. Journal of Cleaner Production 112, pp. 3750-3758. ISSN 0959-6526.
- Cheng, Chao-Yo and Urpelainen, J. (2015) Who should take the garbage out? Public opinion on waste management in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Habitat International 46, pp. 111-118. ISSN 0197-3975.
- Cheng, Chao-Yo and Urpelainen, J. (2014) Fuel stacking in India: changes in the cooking and lighting mix, 1987–2010. Energy 76, pp. 306-317. ISSN 0360-5442.
- Cheng, Chao-Yo (2011) Poverty alleviation and development in Xinjiang. Chinese Law & Government 44 (6), pp. 3-9. ISSN 0009-4609.
Monograph
- Jain, A. and Ray, S. and Ganesan, K. and Aklin, M. and Cheng, Chao-Yo and Urpelainen, J. (2015) Access to Clean Cooking Energy and Electricity Survey of States. New Delhi, India: Council on Energy, Environment and Water.
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Business and community
Business and community
Outreach
Roundtable: "Unpacking Taiwan's 2024 Elections," Birkbeck, University of London, March 2024
Winter School: "Using Numbers of Study Law and Politics," China (Online), January 2024
Roundtable: "BISR ECR Roundtable: The Challenges of Politicised Research," Birkbeck, University of London, May 2024
Summer School: "Causality and Causal Inference in Empirical Legal Studies: A Primer," Sichuan University School of Law, July 2024
Summer School: "Applied Big Data Analysis for Law and Social Sciences," University of International and Business Economics (Beijing, China), July 2023 and 2024