BUS News

Dr. Ting CHEN Earns “Rising Star Research Grant” for Breakthrough Research on Local Favoritism and Economic Reform Leveraging AI Technologies

8 Aug, 2024

We are delighted to announce a remarkable achievement - Dr. Ting CHEN has been awarded with the prestigious “Rising Star Research Grant 2023-24”, a recognition for young researchers, awarded by the Vice-President (Research and Development) of Hong Kong Baptist University, Prof. LYU Aiping. Her ongoing project, titled “Local Favoritism and Economic Reform: Evidence from Training GazetteerGPT on Thousands of Local Gazetteers”, offers an intriguing examination of China’s post-1978 economic reforms.

Dr. CHEN's pioneering research sheds new light on a driving force behind China's remarkable economic rise - the role of local innovation. Her work reveals how local government officials and their personal networks were instrumental in spearheading the institutional changes that fueled China's reform and opening up. Her investigation goes beyond the conventional narrative. She uncovers the nuanced, and at times unexpected, positive impacts of local favoritism - challenging the assumption that it is solely a byproduct of corruption and unfair resource allocation.

In response to empirical challenges in data collection and analysis, Dr. CHEN is developing a new Large Language Model (LLM), named GazetteerGPT. This model will leverage the information in local gazetteers and the advancements of ChatGPT and other open-source LLMs. GazetteerGPT aims to streamline the retrieval and standardisation of information on local reforms and officials, enabling efficient analysis and diverse dataset construction from local socio-economic-political histories.

The project not only aims to enrich the field of political economy, but could also potentially extend its positive impact across a wide range of disciplines, including history, sociology, and political science. In doing so, the project promises to create a significant societal impact.