Education:

2017:  PhD in Development Economics, LICOS-Centre for Institutions and Economics Performance, KU Leuven Belgium.

2012:  MA in Economics at the Northwest University, Xi’an, China.

2008:  BA in Business Administration at the Northwest University, Xi’an, China.

Employment:

2022 –         :   Associate Professor, College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China

2022 –         :  Senior Researcher, Macro Agriculture Research Institute (MARI), Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China  

2020 –         :  Senior Researcher, SuReFood Alliance, the Netherlands

2017 – 2021: Postdoctoral researcher at the Development Economics Group, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University, the Netherlands

Recent published works:

[1] Wang, Q.¹, Li, F.¹, Heerink, N., Yu, J., Fleskens, L., and Ritsema, C. (2022). Land rental markets, specialization, and rural household income: Evidence from the North China Plain., Journal of Agricultural and Resources Economics, forthcoming.  

[2] Ma, J., Li, F.*, and Zhang, H*. (2022). Commercial cash crop production and households’ economic welfare: Evidence from the pulse farmers in rural China. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 22(11), 395–3407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jia.2022.09.006

[3] Liu, Y., Heerink, N., Li, F., and Shi, X*. (2022). Do agricultural machinery services promote village land rental markets? Theory and evidence from the North China Plain. Land Use Policy, 122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106388

[4] Li, F., Li, D., Feng, S*., Zhang, W., and Heerink, N. (2022). Improving smallholders’ soil nutrient management: The effect of science and technology backyards in the North China Plain. China Agricultural Economic Review. https://doi.org/10.1108/CAER-10-2021-0197  

[5] Cao, H., Li, F.*, Xiang, T., Qian, C., and Zhao, K. (2022). From value perception to behavioral intention: Study of Chinese smallholder’s pro-environmental farming practices, Journal of Environmental Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115179

[6] Strokal, M., Annette, J., Chen, X., Kroeze, C., Li, F., Ma, L., Yu, H., Zhang, F., and Wang, M. (2021). Green Agriculture and Blue Water in China: Integrating Crop and Livestock Production for Clean Water. Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering. https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2020366

[7] Huang, W., Yao, P.,Li, F.*, and Liao, X. (2021). Student Governments in Chinese Higher Education: Reflection on College Students’ and Student Cadres’ Political Trust. Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00721-8

[8] Tan, M., Hou, Y., Zhang, L., Shi, S., Long, W., Ma, Y., Zhang, T., Li, F., and Oenema, O. (2020). Farmer’s Perceptions of Manure Management Techniques in Medium to Large Size Dairy and Poultry Farms in China. Journal of Cleaner Production. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125149

[9] Wang, B. Li, F., Feng, S.*, and Shen, T. (2020). Transfer of Development Rights, Farmland Preservation and Economic Growth: A Case Study of Chongqing Land Quotas Trading Program. Land Use Policy. 95. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104611

[10] Wang, Q., Li, F., Heerink, N., Yu, J.*, Fleskens, L., and Ritsema, C. (2020). Price Decline, Land Rental Market and Agricultural Production in the North China Plain. China Agricultural Economic Review. 13(1), 124-149. https://doi.org/10.1108/CAER-04-2019-0066

[11] Qian, C., Li, F., Antonides, G., Heerink, N., Ma, X., and Li, X.* (2020). Effect of Personality Traits on Smallholders' Land Renting Behaviour: Theory and Evidence from the North China Plain. China Economic Review. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2020.101510

[12] Li, F., Loyalka, P., Yi, H., Shi, Y., Johnson, N., and Rozelle, S. (2018). Ability Tracking and Social Trust in China’s Rural Secondary School System. School Effectiveness and School Improvement. 29(4), 545-570. https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2018.1480498

[13] Huang, W., Li, F.*, Liao, X., and Hu, P. (2018). More Money, Better Performance? The Effects of Student Loans and Need-based Grants in China’s Higher Education. China Economic Review, 51(1), 208-227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2017.09.005

[14] Li, F., Song, Y., Yi, H., Wei, J., Zhang, L., Shi, Y., Chu, J., Johnson, N., Loyalka, P., and Rozelle, S. (2017). The Impact of Conditional Cash Transfers on the Matriculation of Junior High School Students into Rural China’s High Schools, Journal of Development Effectiveness, 9(1), 41-60. https://doi.org/10.1080/19439342.2016.1231701  

[15] Li, F., Shi, Y., Boswell, M., and Rozelle, S. (2017). Craft Beer in China. Chapter 17 in Garavaglia, C., and Swinnen, J. (eds) Economic Perspectives on Craft Beer: A Revolution in the Global Beer Industry. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58235-1_17

[16] Li, F., and Mo, D. (2016). The Burgeoning Chocolate Market in China, Chapter 18 of The Economics of Chocolate, edited by Squicciarini, Mara P. and Johan Swinnen, Oxford University Press, UK. http://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198726449.001.0001

Publications in Chinese journals:

[17] Qian, C., Li, F., Li, X., and Hao, J. (2021). Analysis of fertilizer use optimization under the joint framework of economic rationality and environmental sustainability: Evidence from wheat farmers in Handan, Hebei Province, Journal of Natural Resources, 36(6), 1481 – 1493.

[18] Liao, X., Huang, W., Yao, P., and Li, F. (2019). Targeting, adequacy and poverty Reduction: Effect of college freshmen's financial aid policy in China, Research in Educational Development, 3, 76-84.  

[19] Huang, W., Yao, P., and Li, F. (2016). Effect of student loans on their academic performance, China Higher Education Research, 9, 77-82.

[20] Chang, F., Shi, Y., Li, F., Yu, A., Yang, B., and Yang, C. (2012). Impact of nutrition information intervention on rural left-behind children health: Evidence from a randomized controlled experiment in Shaanxi province, China. Journal of Agrotechnical Economics, 4, 117-125.

Visiting scholars/other international community member:

2021: 

Senior Expert of Action Track 5: Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress, UN 2021 Food System Summit. https://www.un.org/zh/food-systems-summit/action-tracks

2017: 

Greater China Studies at the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, Tubingen University, Tubingen, Germany.

2016: 

Rural Education Action Project (REAP), Stanford University, Palo Alto, the United State.

International conferences and symposiums:

2022:

Presented on the 14th CAER-IFPRI annual conference on “Agricultural and Rural Development in China: Rethink, Reform and Renewal” in Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.

Presented on the 1st International Workshop on the Chinese Development Model “The Chinese Development and Modernization Experience: Defying mainstream economic theories to achieve unprecedented progress” in IQS School of Management Universitat Romon Llull, Barcelona, Spain.

Presented on the 16th ICARD international conference on Agriculture & Rural Development in China (ICARDC XVI) “Rural China under Xi: Change, Continuity and Contradictions” in Oxford University, UK.

2020:

Presented on the 12th CAER-IFPRI annual conference on “Urban-Rural Integrated Development in China: Challenges and Solutions”, October 29 – 30, 2020, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.

Presented on IAMO workshop on “Political Economy of Agricultural Policies and Land Relations”, March 5 – 6, 2020, IAMO Halle (Saale), Germany.

2019:

Presented on the 1st SuReFood interdisciplinary seminar, November 21, 2019, Wageningen, the Netherlands.

Presented on the 11th CAER-IFPRI annual conference on “Quality-Driven Development in China’s Food System: Challenges and Solutions”, October 17 – 19, 2019, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.

Presented on the CHER 32 annual conference on “Theories and Methods in Higher Education Research”, August 28 – 30, 2019, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany.

Presented on the 2019 Chinese Economist Society annual conference on “Forty’s Years of Quantitative Economic Research in China: Retrospectives and Perspectives”, June 8 – 9, 2019, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian, China.

Presented on the 4th South Lake Innovation Forum for International Young Talents of Huazhong Agricultural University, May 10-12, 2019, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.

Research projects:

Sustainable Resource Management for Adequate and Safe Food Provision (2016 – 2021)

Financed by: Programme Strategic Scientific Alliances (PSA) of the Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) of China.

Total funding: 2.9 million Euros.

Sub-project on impact assessment of science and technology backyard on promoting sustainable agricultural production in China, project collaboration with Collage of Land Management at Nanjing Agricultural University and National Academy of Green Development at China Agricultural University.

Video-based technology extension and its impact on farmers’ adoption of smart irrigation technics in Inner Mongolia, China.

Financed by: China National Natural Science Foundation (NSFC), and Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.

Total funding: 500,000 yuan

Project duration: Jan. 2022 till Dec. 2025.

The project is a clustered randomized controlled experiment by using video-based technology in in conventional extension system to promote the adoption of smart irrigation among median-to-large scale farmers in Inner Mongolia.

Cultivating a market-based agricultural specialized service organization (2020-2021)

Financed by: Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China.

Total funding: 100,000 yuan

The project is primarily focusing on market accessibility of rural farmers in China regarding access advanced farm technology and other sustainable agricultural inputs.  

Other academic research activities:

2021:

July 16th to 20th, 2021, North-Eastern University, School of Business Administration, Summer School on Agricultural Productivity and Efficiency: Theory and Application in rural China, initiator and organizing committee.

May 24th, 2021, Yangzhou University, Agricultural Green Development under China’s Rural Revitalization Strategy: Empirical Evidence Based on Smallholders and Family Farms’ Fertilizer Use, organizing committee and presenter.

2020:

January 3rd to 7th, 2021, Nanjing Agricultural University, School of Public Administration, Winter school on Impact Assessment of Policies and Programmes: Experimental Methods, initiator and organizing committee.

Referee of the International and Chinese Journals:

China Economic Review/China Agricultural Economic Review/ Emerging Markets Finance and Trade/The Quarterly Economics/Energy Policies/Land Use Policy/Environmental Science and Pollution Research/Journal of Development Effectiveness/ Frontiers in Climate-Climate Adaptation/Studies in Higher Education /Higher Education /经济学季刊